Living dead girls
by psychotol
Summary: A girl gets dead, but not lying still in a coffin dead, more walking around drinking with your mates dead, Just revamped the first one and added more chapters.
1. Living Dead Girls

Constraints: Daria and others are still in high school, this fic will ignore the implied graduation time for Daria, so she is still in high school when the final series of angel occurs, this occurs between "Smile Time" and "Origin" in the Angel universe.

Synopsis: A girl gets dead, but not lying still in a coffin dead, more walking around drinking with your mates dead.

**Living dead girls**.

Content: extreme violence, torture.

Legal: cast of Daria belongs to mutant enemy, cast of Angel and Buffy belong to MTV, … … yeah, I think that's right, also Thea, Stalker and Roentgen helped me with this, really saved it in fact.

-

After the usual crap (convincing her mom she was eating properly and putting up with Daria's wising off), Quinn headed to Stacy's to check up on her.

After knocking on the door, she waited.

Stacy appeared as cheery looking as ever.

"Stacy, you're better?" asked Quinn.

"Erm, yes, Quinn," she said, but that sounded more like Brittany than Stacy just then.

"Excellent, that case, I should bring you up to speed on last nights meeting." They headed to school, the weather matched the theme of the day by being overcast.

-

Daria and Jane entered the toilets and checked all the stalls were empty.

"Alright, Jane, so what do we need to talk about?" asked Daria.

"Okay, you remember when I overslept?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, that would be the day the earth rotated," said Daria.

"I mean, overslept by my standards," said Jane.

"Go on."

"Right, well, there's something I need to tell you."

There was an overly dramatic pause.

"Okay, while I've been intuitive occasionally, I've never been psychic, so you mind cutting to the chase?" asked Daria.

"Yeah … Just give me a second to work up the courage to do so."

Another pause ensued.

"Okay, ready?" asked Jane.

"Give me a second," said Daria, then she nodded.

Janes face shifted, growing heavy eyebrows, and her iris colour went yellow.

"Huh … I was sure that was an aspirin I took this morning … " mused Daria.

"Afraid you're not hallucinating," said Jane, revealing extended canines.

"What's with the … " Daria said, pointing at her own canines.

"Ah … those are for piercing major blood vessels so I can drink peoples blood," said Jane.

"Vampire huh?" commented Daria.

Jane looked towards the mirror, Daria glanced at it too … "how did I miss that?" She said, noticing for the first time her friend had no reflection "and come to think of it, how does being a vampire alter the laws of physics?"

"I dunno."

"What about the sunlight thing?"

"Oh, I so don't want to think about that right now."

"You'll probably have to," said Daria.

"Ankle length coat and an umbrella?" said Jane.

Daria glanced at her watch "we need to get to class."

Jane returned her face to normal and followed Daria out.

"You seem to be taking this rather well," said Jane.

Daria shrugged and said "Well, I'm still absorbing this new fact. Also, it's not the first time I've seen weird shit happening: Personified Holidays, inexplicable urges to sing about everything," said Daria, shuddering at the memory of serenading Trent with Garbage's 'Crush'.

-

English went as normal, Daria winding up O'Neill, then they were on to gym class.

-

"Tennis time, people, everyone grab a racket, a ball, pick a court, and try bouncing the ball up and down for a while."

Daria and Jane, being slackers, ended up with the Fashion Club, who were vain.

Daria ended up with Stacy and Tiffany again, Jane with Sandi and Quinn.

Tiffany kept giving Jane weird looks.

Sandi and Quinn were the only ones that wouldn't do the exercise until Morris was looking. Daria, the perpetual wiseass, bounced the ball off the palm of her hand, Jane bounced the ball between her racket and the floor at speed, and Stacy bounced the ball off her racket to within millimetres of the ceiling.

When they got into playing, Jane quickly found her strength had increased, and every time the ball entered Darias side, it was always Stacy who got it.

Daria eventually stopped and stepped well back.

Stacy was … teleporting.

Tiffany did the same as Daria as she found herself feeling a touch redundant.

Jane just kept at it while Sandi and Quinn stopped and stepped back.

-

"Was it my imagination, or was Stacy faster than normal?" asked Jane.

"I just learned that vampires are real, so I imagine not," said Daria as they got changed.

"There's another thing: Just before Stacy stopped showing up for school, she had a smell I could perceive, much like that of other people. But today, she smells different."

"You were also faster than normal, you got a mirror?" asked Daria.

"No need," said Jane as she pointed out the fashion club at the big mirrors at the end.

Stacy had a reflection.

"Okay, probably not a vampire, so what does that leave?" asked Daria.

-

They entered the cafeteria, still discussing Stacy.

"OWW!" yelled Jane, she had vamped out in reflex to the pain as she hissed "fffffffuck!"

"What?" asked Daria.

Jane unvamped for a second, looking at the window, then she quickly poked a finger into the sunlight. She then said "Guess that answers that question, see any clouds about to cover the sun?"

Daria looked out the corner of her eye, and said "nope, you pick a table, I'll get our food, what do you want?"

"Ah, probably best not eating anything the cafeteria has to offer anyway," said Jane.

"Hmm, good call."

They headed back out.

-

In the library, they started reading whatever they could find on the subject.

"I get the feeling most of these authors wouldn't recognise a vampire if it bit them in the neck," said Jane.

"Yeah, this does seem to be proving quite fruitless."

"Doesn't help I skipped lunch," said Jane.

They saw Tiffany approach.

"Hmm, think anyone would notice if a Fashion Club member showed up dead with puncture marks in her neck?" asked Daria.

"I dunno," replied Jane before her stomach growled "that's another point we need to think about," said Jane.

"I neeeeeed to taaaaaalk, to Jaaaaane … aloooooooooone," Tiffany said.

Daria and Jane looked at each other, then Daria stood up and gathered some of the books "I'll start putting some of these back," she said.

After Daria was clear, Jane turned her seat to face Tiffany and asked "So, what can I do for you?"

Tiffany suddenly pulled something that looked like a spike from her purse and advanced as if making to stab Jane.

Jane grabbed her and flipped her over, the chair she was sitting in added radius so Tiffany's ass landed extra hard on the floor. Jane didn't follow, rolling over onto all fours and standing up as Tiffany flipped again to her feet.

"What the fuck?" asked Jane.

Tiffany considered her next move, standing around with her stabbing weapon.

"Sorrrrry," Tiffany said, as she considered her plan of attack.

She then charged at Jane again. Jane got a punch in, then Tiffany got a punch in, Jane was surprised at Tiffanies strength. She grabbed Tiffanies weapon hand and slammed her back into the bookcase. No longer confident she could engage Tiffany, and also not confident she could clear the room before Tiffany could throw her weapon at her, Jane ran across the aisle and up the shelves of the bookcase, before leaping across the aisle, Tiffany was watching trying to figure out what to do.

Jane leapt across again, the book case she launched from swayed. The other one was nudged past its footprint and she was back on the first one again. She went over, then she leapt to the next bookcase, there wasn't the ceiling clearance to run from case to case, so she instead leapt to the next case.

She heard Daria scream from behind her.

Daria was behind the bookcase she had toppled.

"DARIA!" shouted Jane.

She landed on the floor, then ran around.

She noticed someone running on the other side of the book case on an intercept course.

She let the other person overtake slightly, then she grabbed Tiffany and spun her around several times, and then into the bookcase. She then elbowed Tiffany in the back of her head. She stepped on Tiffanies hand to test if she was actually out cold, then, hoping Tiffany didn't simply have excellent pain tolerance, headed off to the toppled bookcases.

-

She dropped to the floor and looked along the triangular tunnel, she saw Daria behind the books, crawling to her "YOU ALRIGHT DARIA?"

"YEAH, FINE, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED THERE?"

Jane glanced at Tiffany, still unconscious, then turned back to Daria, who was almost clear "TIFFANY WENT NUTS, TRIED TO STAB ME!"

Daria reached the end of the tunnel and pulled herself out "okay, why couldn't you have knocked her out earlier?"

"She was really strong."

The librarian arrived asking "what the heck is going on here?"

-

"Do either of you have an explanation as to what happened in the library?" asked Angela.

Jane shrugged and said "maybe Tiffany was withdrawing from the narcotics she's on."

"This is a serious matter, Miss Lane, your flippancy does not make you look good."

"Look, all I know is Tiffany tried to stab me with a wooden dagger of some kind, I did what I felt I had to to escape, I forgot Daria was behind the bookcase I was jumping off of."

"And then you decided instead to take on Tiffany?"

"I had to check on Daria, besides, I formed a plan to knock Tiffany out, it seemed safer than running and hoping she doesn't catch up," said Jane.

"What's Tiffanies status anyway?" asked Daria.

"That is none of your business, Miss Morgendorffer, you are a part of this," said Angela.

"Yeah, the part it rained books on," said Daria.

-

Jane lifted her outer shirt and Darias coat over her head as they left, then they ran for the nearest tree to the school grounds.

When they were in the shade, Jane gave Daria her coat back and put her overshirt back on "well, that was fun."

"Okay, you wait here, I'll find a payphone and call Trent," said Daria, as she headed off.

Jane sat under the tree.

She thought about how much her life sucked right now.

Why did she go along with that weirdoes idea anyway?

Oh yeah, post shag euphoria, made her suggestible, he drank her blood, she drank his, and now she can't tolerate sunlight, can't look at herself in a mirror, and apparently attracts crazies such as Tiffany.

And her stomach was still growling.

"Excuse me, miss," she looked up at the voice, it was a cop.

"I'm afraid you have to move on, no loitering allowed around a school."

"I'm waiting for my ride, and I'm kind of photosensitive right now, I leave the shade, I'm toast," said Jane.

"You're still going to have to leave now," said the cop.

"They won't know where to find me if I do," said Jane.

"If you don't move on immediately, I'll have to arrest you for loitering," he said.

"Fine," said Jane, she stood up, looking around to see if Trent was here yet, no joy, she sighed, turned to the cop, glancing around one last time to see if anyone was watching them, and smacked him in the nose.

She then sat the cop against the tree, pulling his hat over his eyes.

Daria returned, looking at the cop on the floor.

"Jane?" she asked.

"Yes Daria?"

Daria sighed, and said "Trent will be here in 5 minutes, try not to get too wanted before he arrives."

Stacy walked into view.

"Stacy, how are you?" asked Jane.

"I'm fine, I heard you assaulted Tiffany," she said.

"Tiffany assaulted me, came at me with a wooden needle point dagger," Jane said.

"You mean a wooden stake?" asked Stacy.

Jane had been avoiding using the word 'Stake' because she was finding this new state to be faintly unreal, but she said "Yeah, a stake, you know what else, she was really strong too, as are you, you're not going to try attacking me too are you?"

"No, I am not the same as Tiffany."

"But you've gained enhanced strength and speed," observed Daria.

"Yes," said Stacy.

"And you're not a Vampire," said Jane.

"Correct," said Stacy.

"So what are you?" asked Daria.

Stacy looked around and said "I'm not Stacy."

Daria shrugged and asked "you're not a mimetic poly alloy robot from the future, are you?"

"Mimetic poly alloy?" asked the thing that looked like Stacy.

"Err … sci-fi reference, so … what are you then?" asked Daria.

Stacy looked around again, then she waved her hand, there was an optical distortion, then everything around them stopped moving, Daria looked at birds that were frozen in mid flight, then at an aircraft, it had not stopped still, the contrails showed some movement, just not a lot.

Stacy then nodded slightly and her clothes changed, turning into a maroon leather suit with the weirdest patterns of black, beige, and blue on it. Her face and hair also changed colour, some of her hair was blue. As was the edge of her face, the middle of her face was yellow. "My name is Illyria, god king of the primordium. The shell I now occupy, the one you call Stacy Rowe, no longer exists," she said, sounding more like Seven of nine off of Voyager.

Janes stomach growled again.

"You have not fed," observed Stacy.

"Correct," said Jane.

"Should you not be in school?" asked Stacy, or Illyria, whatever the Identity.

"Got suspended for trashing the library," said Daria.

"I probably should have fed on Miss Li," said Jane.

"I could bring her to you," said Illyria/Stacy.

"We were kidding," said Daria.

"I still gotta source blood somewhere though," said Jane.

"You wish to feed without harming others?" asked Stacy/Illyria.

"Pretty much," said Jane.

"That is unusual … you have a soul," said Stacy/Illyria.

"Yeah? … Hang on, is that unusual with vampires?" asked Jane.

"It is, when you become a half breed, your soul leaves, it would take a magical spell to return your soul," said Stacy/Illyria.

"Half breed?" asked Jane.

"Vampires are half human, half demon," said Illyria.

"Hmm … do we have any idea how much blood you'd need?" asked Daria.

Time eventually returned to normal.

"So why you out here, Stacy?" asked Daria.

"Illyria," Illyria corrected.

Daria nodded and gestured.

"I came out here to talk to the trees, this ones roots are being crushed by the pavement," Illyria said.

Daria looked at the tree then said "Damn … so, how did you come to be in Stacy's body anyway?"

"Stacy was the one to touch the crystal on my sarcophagus," said Illyria.

"Sarcophagus?" asked Daria.

"Yes, it was my prison when I was being held in the deeper well."

"And how did you end up in the sarcophagus?" asked Daria.

Suddenly Illyria convulsed, then said "what have you done?"

Daria and Jane looked at each other, then Daria asked "you okay there?"

"You will not succeed," she said before disappearing.

Daria and Jane stared after her, eventually, Daria said "huh?"

-

Daria was walking back and forth, while Jane kept vamping and unvamping much like people normally tap a pen or snap their elastic watch band out of boredom.

"So … Stacy's gone," Said Jane.

"Yeah … I get this feeling we should be more broken up about it then we are," said Daria.

"Do you think if we interacted with Stacy more we would be?" asked Jane.

Daria shrugged.

Trent got there.

Jane got up, Daria started removing her coat, but Jane saw the ground darken and ventured out, they got in the car before the cloud cleared the sun.

"You know, you really shouldn't attend school as long as it's only doing business during the day," said Trent.

"Yeah, yeah," said Jane.

"He knows?" asked Daria.

"Kinda hard not to, seeing her with those eyes and fangs in the morning," he said.

"Morning?" asked Daria.

"Different shifts," said Trent.

"Okay, but what are we going to do about feeding her?" asked Daria.

"Hmm … Maybe people would pay to get bitten, you know, like a blood fetish?"

"Yeah, I'm sure we're the first people to think of such a scheme," said Jane.

"How'd you become a vampire anyway?" asked Daria.

"Drank another vampires blood. I just thought it was some kinky blood play, he fed off of me, then I fed off of him. Next morning, I wake up with an ugly face I can't see because I have no reflection," said Jane.

-

Helen turned to the front door as soon as it opened, and Daria entered.

"DARIA, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO AT SCHOOL TODAY?" asked Helen.

"I had a near death experience and got suspended for it," replied Daria.

"AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING THE REST OF THE DAY?" she asked.

"Hanging with Jane, she also got suspended, Tiffany attacked her, and she was suspended for not dying," said Daria.

Quinn and Sandi entered.

"Hi mom," said Quinn.

"Quinn, how's Tiffany?"

"She's recovering, apparently Jane attacked her."

"Bullshit," said Daria.

"Stacy went missing shortly after, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" asked Sandi.

"Maybe the crew of voyager liberated her from your collective," said Daria, who turned and headed to her room.

"DARIA, WE'RE NOT FINISHED," said Helen.

"I imagine not, but unless there have just been further developments, I view my presence down here as frivolous," said Daria.

-

Jane was watching TV, trying in vain to distract herself from the hunger pangs she was feeling.

She remembered what Stacy- no, Illyria, she remembered what Illyria said, about her having a soul. Vamps don't normally have these, so she had been re-souled by someone, or by accident.

Magical spell.

Witches.

Wiccans?

Her mom was a Wiccan, if she wanted to keep Jane from being a danger without killing her, that might do it. She'll have to ask her about it when she gets back.

The door opened, and Trent entered with shopping bags full of tubs of something.

"Janey, I got something we should try," he said.

Jane came over to him, smelling blood.

Not human, but it'll do.

She grabbed one of the plastic tubs from the shopping bag and vamped out, biting the base of the tub and cracking the lid enough to admit air.

After chugging the entire tub, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said "it'll do, thanks Trent."

Trent headed to the fridge to stow the remaining tubs. He wondered what kind of a life Jane was going to have now, because sunlight was pretty much everywhere during the day, so she would not have the mobility she once had. She would not be able to buy her own art supplies.

There was a knock on the door.

Jane answered.

"Hi," said the boy.

"Hi, bye," Jane slammed the door in his face.

"What's wrong, Jane?" he asked through the door.

She opened the door and grabbed him by his clothes shouting "WHAT'S WRONG? WHAT'S WRONG IS THAT I CAN NO LONGER ENJOY THE SUNSHINE, I DROOL OVER THE SIGHT OF A BULGING ARTERY, AND I SEEM TO ATTRACT VAMPIRE HUNTERS, YOU THOUGHTLESS BASTARD!" she shoved him back and yelled "NOW FUCK OFF BEFORE I SHOVE A WOODEN INSTRUMENT THROUGH YOUR REDUNDANT HEART!"

He got to his feet and ran off.

She returned to the house.

"That's the guy who did that to you?" he asked.

"Yep."

Suddenly a portal formed, and Illyria stepped through.

"Hey Illyria," greeted Jane.

Illyria looked around "this is not where I intended to go," she stated.

"Where were you headed?" asked Jane.

"I need to find Vahla Ha'nesh, my temple, so I can once again take command of my army," said Illyria.

"Okay, do you remember anything about your temples location? Which city it's in or near?"

"None of your cities were around when I was in charge," said Illyria.

"Not even the Aztec cities?" asked Jane.

"No," said Illyria, after wondering what the Aztecs were.

"What time scale are we talking about anyway?" asked Jane.

"What do you measure time by?" asked Illyria.

"Seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years." said Jane.

"It is immaterial, the amount of time is vast. The only constraints are how long this planets host star will last."

"Hang on," Jane said, before heading off to find something.

Illyria turned to Trent and asked "Who are you?"

"Trent Lane, I'm Janeys brother," said Trent.

"You are not a half breed like her," she stated.

"Half Breed?" asked Trent.

"A Vampire," clarified Illyria.

"Oh, no I'm not," said Trent.

Jane returned with a world atlas saying "I don't know how useful this will be to you. Did you have cartographers, or the opportunity to view the planet from high orbit?"

"I can remember the planets terrain features from my time like I am looking at them now," she said.

Jane opened the book and found a full map of the world with two inset polar maps for the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

"The continents have moved significantly since my time. The ocean you refer to as the Atlantic did not exist in my time," she said.

"Do you see anything that resembles the location of your temple?" asked Jane.

"Yes, I believe I do," said Illyria, she then made a portal and disappeared.

"You're welcome," said Jane.

-

Quinn hung up again.

"Stacy's still missing," said Quinn.

"Could Jane have killed her?" asked Sandi.

"We need to ask Daria that," said Quinn.

"How do we do that?" asked Sandi.

-

There was a knock on Daria's door.

"Walk away," said Daria in response.

Quinn and Sandi entered.

"How do I get you two to leave?" asked Daria.

"Tell us what's going on with Jane, she attacked Tiffany, and probably did something to Stacy," said Quinn.

Daria put down her book and looked up to the ceiling in consideration, then she got up and said "follow me."

-

There was a knock.

Trent answered, it was Daria, Darias sister, and Darias sisters friend.

"Is Jane in?" asked Daria.

"She's up stairs in her room," said Trent.

They headed up.

The music Jane was playing seemed appropriate, Disturbeds 'Awaken'

Daria knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" asked Jane.

Daria opened the door and lead the two Fashion Clubbers in.

Jane looked at them funny.

"I think we're going to have to tell them," said Daria.

"Okay," Jane said, she then picked up a mirror and vamped out.

Sandi and Quinn freaked, but stayed where they were.

"I was turned into a vampire by my boyfriend," she held up the mirror at 45 degrees to their position and waved her hand next to it, showing them the complete lack of a reflection.

Jane unvamped and asked "Questions, comments?"

"Erm … how long have you been a vampire?" asked Quinn.

"Few days, why did you two need to know this anyway?" asked Jane.

"Tiffany and Stacy," said Sandi.

"Tiffany tried to kill me, and Stacy's been possessed by a primordial god king, she's looking for the temple of Valerie Hallie … something, has her army. Apparently, the Atlantic ocean didn't exist in her day."

"I think we need to get back now, Mom's still working on defending the mall against Wolfram and Hart over a mix up in deliveries: Wrong sarcophagus apparently, like there's any difference."

"What would a mall want with a sarcophagus?" asked Daria.

"Some sort of Egypt theme," said Quinn.

"Illyria said something about being in a sarcophagus, who was supposed to get the sarcophagus that ended up at the mall?" asked Daria.

"I dunno, just some client of Wolfram and Hart," said Quinn.

"The Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart?" everyone turned to see Illyria where she had just stepped through her portal.

"You know of them?" asked Daria.

"They were a feeble group in my day, what are they today?" asked Illyria.

"A law firm … if they know where your sarcophagus was supposed to go, that might help you find your temple," said Jane.

Illyria made another portal and left.

"And the thing with Tiffany?" asked Sandi.

"I have no idea what her problem is, just keep her the fuck away from me, okay?" said Jane.

"Sure," said Sandi.

"Catch you later Jane," said Daria as they headed out.

They met Tiffany at the front door.

Tiffany pulled a crucifix and touched it against each girl and then said "leeeeeeaaaave."

"Sure, but you're coming with, Tiff." said Daria, closing the door behind her.

"Iiiiiiii caaaaaaan't … I haaaaave aaaaaaaaa Jooooooob … Iiiiiiiiii'm Aaaaaaaa Vaaaaampirrrrrrrre … Slaaaaaaaayyyyyyyerrrrrrrrrr," she said.

"Tiffany, if you kill Jane, I'll kill you slowly and painfully," said Daria.

"Sheeeeeeee's alreaaaaaaaaaady … Deaaaaaaad," she said.

"She's alive enough for me, now fuck off," said Daria.

"Come on Tiffany," said Sandi, going to grab Tiffany, but Tiffany just shoved Sandi to one side. She did the same to Quinn, and Daria stepped to one side feigning submission. Then she grabbed Tiffanies head, using her eyeballs to force her head back, she then ran into the house and shouted "JANE! TIFFANY'S HERE! GET OUT OF THE BASEMENT NOW!"

Tiffany ran past Daria heading to the basement.

Jane appeared at the top of the stairs, she jumped over the handrail and left past Daria, she then ran off real fast.

Tiffany returned, she was starting to look irritated.

"Caaaaaaan't yoooooooou seeeeeeeee thaaaaaaaat Jaaaaaaaane issssssss noooooooo loooooooongerrrrrrrrr therrrrrrrrrrrrre?"

"Tiffany, I don't care what your job is, Jane is my friend, and YOU ARE NOT GOING TO KILL HER," said Daria.

"Yourrrrrrrrr shoooooooelaaaaaaaaace isssssssss untiiiiiiieeeeeeed," said Tiffany.

Daria stared at her in disbelief.

"Mellllllllllvin orrrrrrrrr traaaaaaaaactioooooooon," offered Tiffany.

Daria sighed, and bent over.

-

Jane eventually got to the Zen, public space, hopefully Tiffany won't show.

She had pulled a number of course changes, her first course was 90 degrees off vector. That way, weather Tiffany was pointed in the correct or opposite direction, Jane's actual destination will not be on Tiffanies search grid.

Then she had headed away, and turned back home, then she had ducked into a sewer (not the best smelling place without her ultra sensitive vampire nose). She had emerged beyond the Zen, and finally entered the Zen.

She headed to the pay phone.

-

Daria entered her room, barely able to walk.

She slowly sat down, then the phone started ringing.

She slowly moved towards her phone.

-

Jane was about to hang up when Daria finally answered "Morgendorffer residence."

"Daria? You sound like Brittany."

"That's because, in retaliation for saving your ass, I just got mine Melvined by Tiffany, who's so strong that being a girl is absolutely no protection what so ever. Damn near gave my cunt a Chelsea smile," said Daria.

"Ouch," winced Jane.

"Yeah, next time she gives me that choice, I think I'll take massive skeletal fractures. I don't think it's going to be safe for you to contact me or your immediate family for the foreseeable future, you should also find a Place to hide out that I wouldn't think of," said Daria.

-

Winifred logged off of her computer and stood up only to nearly collide with some demon girl with pigtails "D-AAH!"

"You work for the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart?" the demon girl asked.

"Errph, yeah, I head the science department," said Winifred, a lot scared of the short demon girl before her.

"You will help me find the temple of Vahla Ha'nesh," said the demon girl.

"The … What?" asked Winifred.

"Excuse me, Illyria?"

The girl turned to Knox, who was standing in the doorway to the main lab.

"You know my name," 'Illyria' answered.

"I am your Qwa'ha Xahn, you're looking for Vahla Ha'nesh?" he said.

"I am," Illyria said.

"Right this way," said Knox.

About five minutes after they left, it occurred to Winifred that she needed to talk to Angel about this. She picked up the phone and managed to dial his office in spite of her adrenaline impaired dexterity.

-

Daria heard another knock on her door.

"Yeah?"

Tiffany entered.

"Now what?"

"Yoooou willllllllllll helllllllllllp meeeeee fiiiiiiiiiind Jaaaaaaaaane."

Daria got this eerie 'inner peace' look on her face, then she said " … No, I won't."

-

"MY ARMY! … MY KINGDOM! … It's gone." Illyria fell to her knees in front of the remains of the statue in front of her.

"Erm … I don't know what to say," said Knox, kind of embarrassed. This was not something he could have foreseen. Or prevented, it looked like this place had been in this condition since long before he was born.

He stood there, hoping that by standing perfectly still and not intruding in Illyrias personal space, he would not be beaten into a pink sludge by his god king, who was very understandably pained over the loss of her army.

Illyria shuddered and then stood up.

"Come, Knox," she said.

"Yes boss," he said. He followed her through the portal.

-

"This is it?" asked Faith, gesturing at the house. For some reason another potential had gone undetected here, but since the watcher and the other slayer had both been killed by the vampires, that was probably a good thing.

"Yup," said Willow.

"Okay, how do we-" started Faith.

But willow interrupted "A space time distortion just occurred in the Slayers room."

-

"Staaaaaaaaacccccccyyyyyyyy?" asked Tiffany, not moving off of Daria, whose right leg was folded in Tiffanies scissor lock. Darias hands were pinned against her neck, and Tiffany was poking Daria's legs and groin with the insides of a broken light bulb that was still in its lamp.

"Incorrect. I am Illyria, God king of the primordium, I need to know what Daria did to me," answered Illyria.

"Iiiiiiiiii'lllllllll beeeeeeeeee doooooooooone … Wiiiiiiiiith herrrrrrrrr sooooooooon." said Tiffany, as she produced a CS spray, an a Stanley knife.

Illyria approached Tiffany and Daria, watching in cold curiosity as Tiffany exposed Darias torso and starts cutting a number of short shallow slits.

Darias struggles increased in intensity as she felt the blade slice her skin, then even more as Tiffany lifted the CS spray into view.

The door opened, and two women entered, a short redhead and a tall brunette.

"Whoa, Will?" the brunette said.

The redhead chanted something and Tiffany was pulled off of Daria.

Daria sat up and was headed to the door when Illyria, after picking up the knife and the CS can, grabbed her by her hair and lifted her to her toes, and started picking up where Tiffany left off, reaching under Darias tee shirt with the CS can.

The redhead chanted some more as Daria cried out in pain.

No effect.

The redhead looked at the brunette, who promptly stepped up to Illyria and threw a punch, which never made contact, because Illyria slowed time and made a portal for herself, Daria, and Knox.

-

"She's the slayer," said Willow.

"Whooooooo Arrrrrrrrrre Yooooooooou?" asked the Asian girl.

"I'm Faith, I'm a vampire slayer, this is Willow, she's a witch. We're from the Watchers Council. We detected a Vampire slayer here, you're not insane are you?" asked Faith.

"Nooooooo … Sssssssshe wasssssss aiiiiiiidiiiiinnnng … Aaaaaaaaa vaaaaaampiiiiiiiire."

"Ah, right. Anyway, we're here to make contact with any slayers we detect since all potential slayers got activated just under a year ago," said Faith.

Faith knew from experience that those on the front line built up experience those back at base didn't, so she was willing to defer to the judgement of the slayers she encountered on some matters.

"They're no longer on this plane," said Willow.

"Okay … what's your name?" asked Faith.

"Tiiiifffffffaaaaany Bluuuuuuum Deeeeeecklerrrrrrrr," Tiffany said, standing up.

"Tiffany? You were … You and your watcher have been out of contact for two years now, where have you been?" asked Faith.

"Myyyy waaaaaatcher wassssssss … turrrrrrned intooooo aaaaaa … vaaaaaampiiiiiire … Iiiiiiii wasssssss … … " Tiffanies face took on a look of 'I really don't want to go into this'

"Okay, we'll come back to that later, what about this vampire you're after?" asked Faith.

"Jaaaaane Laaaaaane … Sheeeeee's Daaaaaaariaaaaaaaas weeeeeeeeiiiiiirrrrrd … arrrrrrrrt frieeeeeeeend."

Faith looked at Willow and gestured for her to speed up Tiffanies dictation.

Willow said a magic word and Faith asked her "where are her usual haunts?"

-

After the front door closed, Quinn and Sandi emerged from Quinns room and looked around.

"We're alone, right?" said Sandi.

"Sounds like," said Quinn.

They had heard some of the conversation that had happened. One of the visitors was called Faith, the other was called Willow, and vampire slayers and witches apparently existed in quantity, and Tiffany had a 'watcher' who had been turned into a vampire.

-

"ILLYRIA, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHY I'D HAVE PREVIOUSLY WANTED TO HURT YOU, LET ALONE HOW!" said Daria, now wishing she could hurt this insane … thing.

After continuing the cut and spray technique Tiffany had been doing, Illyria had spent some time punching Daria into the air and catching her (slowing down time to achieve this). She was now on her back, holding Daria by her armpits above her, her knees clamped on Darias hips, and was acting as a rack. Daria just could not shift Illyrias hands or knees off her body, it was like she was being stretched and bent by that loading mech off of aliens. Illyria had kept taking her to the point where she thought her vertebrae would separate, but not quite.

"She really doesn't know of any plot against me," stated Illyria, confident her tried and tested torture would have compelled a confession detailing the plot if she knew.

"What about that witch we saw?" asked Knox.

Illyria released Darias body and sat up, lifting Daria by the neck before opening a portal and heading through, Knox following quickly.

-

Faith and Willow entered the room with Tiffany, who, after some short conversation, they figured was sane, if prone to tunnel vision when it came to Jane of the dead.

But since they had no idea where to find Illyria and Daria, they decided that they might as well indulge Tiffanies obsession for now.

"Yeah, I think this is it," said Tiffany at an accelerated rate. Her voice had increased in pitch due to the Doppler effect. The spell affecting her timeframe, not her neurological clock frequency (apparently magics affecting space time were safer than magics affecting physiology).

"Okay, we getting anything useful?" asked Faith.

Suddenly Willow was replaced with Daria, who promptly collapsed, her tee shirt was stained maroon in a lot of places.

Faith and Tiffany looked at each other, than Faith picked up Daria by her jacket.

"What's going on?" asked Faith, looking extremely annoyed.

"Illyria's interrogating anyone she suspects of involvement in her ill health, she keeps experiencing extreme pain. … She said 'you will not succeed' after one episode, like she saw me attempt something in the future, but I have no idea what," said Daria.

"Okay, just to make myself clear, Willow is a very close and dear friend, so if you're holding anything back-" Faith started.

But was cut off by Daria saying "FOR YOUR INFORMATION, I AM TELLING YOU THIS BECAUSE SHORT BLUE WMD IS LIKELY TO BECOME EVERYONE'S PROBLEM VERY SOON, AND YOU GIVE THE IMPRESSION OF BEING THE ONLY HOPE ANYONE HAS OF SEEING THAT PROBLEM SOLVED" adding in thought 'or at the very least it would keep you two psychos the fuck away from me.'

Tiffany then grabbed both of Darias hands and started bending the middle three fingers of each backwards.

"AND I AM NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING ABOUT THE LIKELY WHEREABOUTS OF MY CLOSE AND DEAR FRIEND, YOU GOT THAT, TIFFANY?"

Tiffany pushed until a crunching noise ensued, and Faith eventually calmed down and said "alright, knock it off, we need to phone the council immediately."

They dropped Daria right there and walked off, but then Faith stopped and said "Jane Lane died when she was turned, her soul is gone. The thing that is walking around looking like her is just some demon that set up shop in her body. If you want to do Jane a favour, you will destroy or help us destroy the thing that's walking around looking like her."

They then continued off.

Daria didn't feel like moving right now, or getting into a conversation with the slayers about the status of Janes soul, seeing as it would probably keep them from being somewhere else.

-

"Aww come on, you're not going to try to tell me an independent pure demon is someone elses problem only, are you?" said Angel.

"I'm not saying it isn't our problem too, but I can't take the chance that your side will profit from a joint venture," replied Rupert.

Exasperated, Angel said "Not this again, WE'RE, NOT, EVIL, for the infinityith time."

"Well, we have all the information there is on the old ones. You may also have as good intelligence, but I'm afraid that while you are with Wolfram and Hart, your motives have to remain in question, and any co-operation with your side is not going to happen, I'm sorry, but that's all we have to say on the issue," said Rupert.

"Fine, whatever, fuck you and good bye," said Angel, before throwing another cell phone at the wall.

"What is it you're lecturing me about courtesy and respect?" taunted Spike.

"We may have another problem," said Winifred.

"Good, no such thing as too many problems, what do we have to be afraid of now?" asked Angel.

"When I returned to my desk, I found the radiation badge, which I clearly remember was almost clear, was now indicating a hazardous radiation dose. The only unusual thing that happened in my office was the appearance of Illyria, I get the impression that the marriage of her demon essence to the human shell she has taken is not a happy one. And given her abilities to alter the flow of time and hop dimensions at will, the energy required for that is the kind of energy you would expect to draw from the kind of astronomical phenomena-"

"In conclusion:" said Angel, breaking off Winifreds explanation.

"She's headed for a warp core breech, or the equivalent energy of, imagine the Soviet super bomb multiplied 20 times-" started Winifred.

But Wesley stepped in with "imagine a crater so big, you can spot it from the moon without having to so much as squint," to which Winifred just nodded.

There was a long silence, then Angel asked "so now what?"

"Well, we have the technology, but we have no way to get it to Illyria." Winifred picked up the case she had with her and opened it, pulling this giant, shiny gun.

Angel leaned forward and said "excuse my ignorance, but I always thought that shooting the loudest bomb ever conceived was a bad idea."

"This won't throw energy at a target, it'll drain it. It will create a portal to another dimension for the blast to vent, like the blowholes on a tanks magazine," said Winifred.

"Don't we need a line of sight on her?" asked Angel.

"Yes, we do," said Winifred "that's the problem, we don't know where Illyria is likely to go."

"We might be able to match her speed now," said Wesley, he got up and produced a crystal he had removed from the sarcophagus.

"But how do we locate her?" asked Angel.

"We have a satellite constellation that can detect ionizing radiation. If she appears anywhere on earth, we'll know where," said Winifred. But she was suddenly replaced with Willow, who was covered in bruises and her legs were twisted at angles that looked wrong for a human skeleton, she collapsed, the ray gun in her arms.

"WILLOW?" asked Wesley.

Willow lifted her head and said "I … " before breaking down into tears.

Wesley suddenly got a horrible feeling about how Illyria might be treating Winifred right now.

-

Sandi and Quinn heard the front door open, they ducked behind the sofa.

"HELLO?" called Daria.

Quinn popped her head up and watched Daria limp into the house, her face contorted in rage.

"Daria, what happened to you?" she asked.

"Quinn, no offence, but your friends are FUCKING PSYCHOS! … Actually, I'm sorry, I got that wrong, I retract the 'no offence' statement, YOUR FRIENDS ARE THE MOST DEPRAVED FUCKING SADISTS I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED!" said Daria, accurately imitating the growl of a wounded mountain lion.

Sandi popped up from behind the sofa.

"You fucking come near me, Sandi, and no piece of you will be big enough for a worm to have to chew," said Daria, as she limped up the stairs to her room.

Quinn and Sandi looked at each other for a few seconds.

Eventually Quinn said "I should check in on her."

Sandi nodded and headed to the kitchen while Quinn headed upstairs.

-

Quinn knocked on Darias door.

"FUCK OFF!" Daria's cry was so distorted, Quinn shuddered.

"Daria, I just want to check to see if you're okay."

She quietly listened to Darias snarls, then Daria responded "well, let's recap my fun experiences with the Fashion Club I have had tonight. First, Tiffany GARROTTES MY SLIT WITH my own FUCKING UNDERWEAR. Then, she uses a TABLE LAMP AS A FUCKING CATTLE PROD. … Then, STACY, OR ILLYRIA as she goes by these days, CUTS ME TO RIBBONS, AND BATS ME AROUND LIKE A FUCKING VOLLEYBALL, and ALMOST PULLS ME IN HALF LIKE A WORM… Round that off with Tiffany breaking my fingers, and you can understand why I don't want to see, hear, or PERCIEVE THE FASHION CLUB IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, FOR THE NEXT ETERNITY! So FUCK OFF!"

Quinn hesitated for a few minutes, then asked "shouldn't you see a doctor for those injuries?"

The door opened, and Daria emerged, she grabbed Quinn by the throat, shoved her against the wall next to the window and shoved her up off her feet saying "Take, a fucking, hint: When I tell you to fuck off, that's what you do immediately, unless you want me to tear you apart like a bug, GOT IT?"

Quinn tried to nod.

"NOD HARDER!"

Quinn frantically obeyed, her face turning red.

Daria released her grip on Quinns throat, and shoved her along the hallway, punching her in one of her kidneys hard, before returning to her room.

-

Faith answered the phone "Hello?"

"Faith?"

"WILLOW!" shouted faith "Where are you?"

"Wolfram and Hart, we got a serious problem, I'm gonna put you onto Wesley, he'll explain."

"Willow, hang on." said Faith.

"Faith, that demon with the blue skin and hair you saw earlier is Illyria, an ancient demon who entered a girl in parasite form. But her fusion with that girl went wrong, and she's going to explode with a yield of around five hundred teratons, it'll make a crater with the land area of half the US. Now, Willow is going to teleport you the equipment to deal with Illyria, that will include some instructions. The next time Illyria appears here, we'll send her to you, understand?"

Faith thought about this, and said "put me onto Willow."

"Faith?" asked Willow.

"That stuff he said, that straight up?" asked Faith.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is, are you ready to receive the equipment?" asked Willow.

"Fine, send it to us," said Faith.

The equipment (some kind of ray gun, a Geiger counter, a gemstone, and some folded sheets of paper) appeared at Faiths feet.

"Right, got a Geiger counter, a futuristic looking arm canon, a gem stone, and some notes," said Faith as she looked through everything.

"Right, read the notes, they'll explain what to do," said Willow.

-

After reading the notes, Faith took the crystal and concentrated.

Her body felt like it was extremely stiff.

She stopped and read the notes again.

She tried the crystal again, and she conked out.

-

"Are you alright?" asked Tiffany.

Faith sat up and instantly regretted it as her head felt like it had been hit with an RPG17 "ahhhhh, fffffffuck! … We are going to need some serious help T, know any witches?"

"No … Wait, there's this brain, Quinns sister Daria," said Tiffany.

Faith got to her feet "Daria who?"

"Daria Morgendorffer," said Tiffany.

Faith felt another headache coming on, this one was down to stress "As in, the same Daria Morgendorffer we were torturing just now?" she asked.

"Yes, that Dar- … … err … oh. … Do you think she might be mad about the torture?" asked Tiffany.

Faith pocketed the crystal and the notes, and picked up the ray gun and the Geiger counter. She was thinking about how her part, trivial as it was, would make Daria lump her with Illyria and Tiffany on her threat board, and how she was having such enormous trouble getting the balance right. Last time she was too squeamish to torture right, now she was too ready to participate in the torture of possible enemy agents. "Well, I don't see a choice." She glanced at her watch and said "come on, sooner we get there, sooner we get done grovelling, the better our chances of saving the world."

-

"I've never seen her like that," said Quinn, massaging her bruised throat.

"What, antisocial?" asked Sandi.

"That was more than antisocial, she was snarling and growling like a trapped animal," said Quinn.

There was a knock on the door.

Quinn answered. It was Tiffany and Faith, Tiffany seemed to be moving faster, Faith was carrying some strange weapon, a rock of some kind, and an electronic box.

"Tiffany, I do not want to see you any more, and you … "

"I'm sorry about what happened, but-" Faith started.

But Quinn interrupted "I don't care what either of you have to say. Tiffany and Stacy, they … th- … and YOU, YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO STOP THEM, YOU'RE ALSO SUPPOSED TO BE A SLAYER … you … have you seen … " Quinn was having trouble finding words that can communicate what she saw.

Faith and Tiffany looked at Quinn with a sense of embarrassment.

Faith finally said "we need Darias help. Tiffany says she's smart, the fate of the world depends on her, not meaning to sound melodramatic, but it does," Faith was no astrophysicist, but she imagined the explosion described would knock earth out of its normal orbit.

Quinn thought for a second, then said "alright, wait in the dining room, I'll go get her."

Faith and Tiffany entered the dining room and sat next to Sandi.

They didn't say anything to each other.

They eventually heard the front door open and close.

"Aw hell," said Faith, getting up and running to the door. She got to it just in time to see the car leave, Quinn at the wheel, Daria in the passenger seat.

Faith ran after the car as Tiffany got to the front door.

She then turned when she heard a whine behind her, it was Sandi with the ray gun.

"I don't want you near me you twisted freak, what you did to Quinns sister is well beyond behaviour unbecoming of a Fashion Club officer-"

"Sandi, I'm sorry, I was just doing my job. I had to find out all I could about the Vampire Daria was protecting, and Faith was being straight up about the fate of the world thing."

"You're not a person, Tiffany, not if you can do that to someone. You're a thing, an evil, worthless, thing, and you have five seconds to get out of my sight."

Tiffany sighed, and then left at speed, looking like someone in a Benny Hill sketch.

-

They got to the high school.

"Quinn, drive around, lead Faith as far away as you can. Do not hesitate to tell her where you dropped me when captured, by then, I should have some traps set" said Daria.

Quinn nodded and drove off, Daria entered the school to prepare her surprises.

-

Illyria entered the lab and dropped Winifred on the floor as she examined it.

"One of the STONES HAS BEEN REMOVED" she observed.

"Fred?" asked Knox.

Winifred was curled up on the floor, her breathing was raspy, her ribcage fractured in numerous places where Illyria had squeezed it with her hands.

"I'm not telling you anything, you sick twisted animals!" hissed Winifred.

"I will," said Wesley, entering the lab, "the gem is in Lawndale"

Illyria looked at Wesley, then created a portal, Knox followed.

Wesley waved through the medics, who started examining Winifred, preparing to move her to WR&Hs infirmary.

"Are they ready?" asked Winifred.

"They'd better be," said Wesley.

-

Sandi examined the crystal that had come with the ray gun, the other device was clicking occasionally, one of those radiation detector thingies.

The clicks suddenly increased in frequency.

Sandi picked it up, she moved it around and got a vector, something was walking along the street, she pocketed the crystal and headed out the back.

-

Every time her middle and ring fingers touched something, pain shot up her arms like she had stuck them in a bayonet socket.

Every time she felt that, it reminded her of why she was doing this.

Daria finished the grenade casings (freezer bags and ductape wrapped around the charge) and started to assemble the now dry blasting caps into them. The caps consisting of 10mm test tubes filled with mercury fulminate and a quantity of diluted and corned blasting powder. The 2kg charge (she wasn't fucking about with shrapnel, the coverage beyond the lethal blast radius just sucks) consisted of mostly AP and RDX (30/70) plus some kerosene to displace the air and add a little fuel for the AP. There was an additional blister of mercury fulminate on the top of the cap in order ignite the fuse. Daria had managed to find some thin strips of spring steel in the metal shop, that with a bolt taped to the back of it formed the striker. Not the absolute safest of devices, but it should do. She knew it should kill the slayers, but she imagined possibly having to find something else to use on Stacy/Illyria if she decided to join the party.

-

Tiffany met Faith outside Lawndale high.

"Quinn dropped Daria off here," said Faith.

"Sandi has the ray gun, threatened to shoot me if I didn't leave," said Tiffany.

"Yeah, can't say I blame her, I can't say I'm entirely pure when it comes to that sin though," said Faith.

"How will we get Daria to help us?" asked Tiffany?

"I don't think you're going to be able to, and Quinn 'fessed up to dropping Daria here a little too easily, I get the impression Daria may be setting a trap," said Faith.

"This is not good," said Tiffany.

"Agreed," Faith gave Tiffany her cell phone "call the council, either Rupert or Andr- … Kennedy, update them of the situation, I'll see if I can get to Daria."

Faith headed into the school.

-

Quinn was headed back to base when she encountered Sandi at a junction with the gun and the electronic device.

Sandi got on board and said "Drive back the way you came."

Quinn did as instructed.

"There's a radioactive thing following us, I don't know what to make of it," said Sandi.

"Daria might … I think I might have been wrong to distrust Faith," said Quinn.

"No you weren't, anyone capable of that kind of cruelty should not be trusted as far as Upchuck could throw them," said Sandi.

-

"DARIA? … LOOK, I'M SORRY FOR WHAT TIFFANY DID, AND I'M SORRY IF I FAILED TO STOP HER, BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP." Faith moved silently, listening for any movement, wondering how she was ever going to make this right and hoping Daria was crap at traps.

She heard footsteps from a corridor to the right.

"DARIA?" Faith headed to the source of the footprints.

She slowly approached the open door.

"I KNOW YOU WANT TO HURT ME, BUT YOU HAVE TO AT LEAST PUT THAT OFF, IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS, I'LL LET YOU-" she heard a loud pop behind her, she saw a ball bounce off the left wall behind her, it had a luminescent part which was smoking.

She ran into the classroom and hit the floor.

The wall next to her was severely cracked by the explosion, and she felt the shock enter her hands, knees, toes and elbows from the floor, 'Jesus, that was loud,' she thought.

Faith got up and looked around, she saw a radio on the desk.

Daria must have some sort of- another pop sounded, she heard something roll into the room. Faith took a second to locate it, then she jumped towards the teachers desk. Four metres away was not too far for a slayer to jump, but she was still airborne when she felt the bone jarring explosion (the fact she had been involved in a bigger blast, around 200kg of composition 4 from 8 metres away, didn't help at all, the shock still fucked with her head). She forgot what she was doing temporarily and collided with the skirting unprepared for the landing, she landed in a crumpled heap.

She looked up and saw Daria standing there with another grenade.

Faith reached out for the teachers chair with her foot and rolled onto her back, she kicked it at Daria.

The chair struck Daria as she was winding to throw the grenade. Daria dropped the grenade, it ignited, Daria glanced at the device, then ran the only direction she knew would save her ass, into the room with Faith. She dived in front of the desk and the third device detonated.

Faith was over the desk before Daria could even think to grab another grenade. She pinned Darias hands to the floor, she looked into Daria's eyes.

"I'm not here to hurt you … I need your help … I'm sorry for what happened … … please, if you don't help us, a lot of cities will be vaporised … nobody will hurt you … … I'm going to release you now."

Faith got to her feet, and released Daria's hands, she then stepped away.

Daria slowly got up, not touching the sling full of Junk Heap Wars grenades she still had with her.

Faith got a folded sheet of paper out of her pocket "This is supposed to explain it." She handed it to Daria.

Daria got out a pen sized flashlight and read it.

Eventually Daria asked "where's the crystal?"

"Sandi has it, we don't have much time, as soon as Illyria shows up at Wolfram and Hart-"

"Our time is up," interrupted Tiffany.

Daria glared at her and said "Tiffany, I have a present for you." She patted her grenade sling.

"I'm sorry, I was-" "Only following orders? Doesn't cut it, Tiffany, but we can pick this up later, Faith?"

Faith took point, Daria followed, and Tiffany took the tail.

"Wow, Dar, those are some decent craters," observed Faith as they left the class room.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to manufacture RDX," said Daria.

They met Quinn and Sandi at the main entrance.

Sandi handed over all three items to Faith. Daria got out a roll of ductape and attached the Geiger counter to the ray gun (a Mutari generator). She then got the crystal and examined it.

She then vanished.

"Where'd she go?" asked Sandi.

Faith pointed at Sandis 4o'clock position, where Daria was walking towards her.

"Okay, looks like we're ready," said Daria.

She then vanished again.

-

In Daria's time frame, the rest of the world was extremely slow, she swept the muzzle around as she tried to acquire Illyria.

Illyria approached, Daria remained still as Illyria entered LOS.

She couldn't let Illyria figure it out until she was too far from cover.

Suddenly, she started doubling over in pain.

-

Sandi, Quinn, Faith and Tiffany looked over to where Illyria was heaving, and glowing from cracks in her skin.

"Err, DARIA?" called Faith "DARIA!"

There was suddenly a horizontal lightning bolt connecting Illyria to Daria, who had appeared somewhere off to the side.

Eventually the plasma stream disappeared and Illyria was face down on the ground.

"Sorry about the delay, it took a second to realise that the Mutari generator was inoperable in an accelerated time frame," said Daria.

Knox appeared from behind a tree.

Then he ran off.

Daria approached Illyria, keeping the Mutari generator pointed at Illyria.

Illyria moved, Daria stopped.

"What, … What have you done to me?" asked Illyria, looking at Daria.

"You still alive?" asked Daria.

Illyria got to her knees and waved her arms around.

"I can not slow time … … I can not open portals … … I can not hear the song of the green." she glared at Daria "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Daria examined the Mutari generator and said "looks like I saved your ass … maybe I can now restrain you and reduce you to a toy, does that sound like fun, Illyria?" asked Daria.

"You're not strong enough to hold me, not even all of you together." She got to her feet, and approached Daria.

Daria pulled another grenade, and pulled the striker back and said "does this mean I get to kill you?"

"STOP!" yelled Faith.

Illyria stopped, Daria froze.

"Daria, safe that grenade," said Faith.

Daria reluctantly returned the striker to its safe position and placed the device back in the sling.

A van then entered the car park and a number of people in boiler suits got out carrying tool kits and armloads of various cleaning agents. They headed to the school, the driver got out and approached the group. The man was a sharp dressed and groomed man, but looked diamond hard.

"Hi, I'm Marcus Hamilton, I'm with Wolfram and Hart. We're just hear to clean things up, so no one gets indicted for any kind of crime. Miss Morgendorffer, I'll need those grenades."

Daria shrugged and handed him the sling.

"Thank you," he took the sling to the van and placed it inside.

He then returned to the group.

"I would just like to forward the senior partners gratitude to you all for a job well done. If any of you decide to go into law, research, or even run of the mill security, you will be welcome to wolfram and hart, we can always use skilled persons such as yourselves."

"Thanks," said Faith, rather sarcastically.

"We could even get your criminal record cleared, Faith."

"Really? I'll get back to you with an answer some time," said Faith, obviously having no intention of following through with her promise.

"I'm sure you will," Marcus walked off to the school.

The group walked off, leaving the cleaners to work and Illyria to mope.

-

Faith and Tiffany waited for their pizza to arrive, then Faiths phone rang.

Tiffany handed it back to Faith, who answered it "Yo."

"Giles here, I thought you'd like to know that Willow has returned to base safe and sound, if a little bruised."

"Okay, good to hear that," said Faith.

"What about Tiffany?" he asked?

"Yeah, I'm with her now," said Faith.

"Can I speak to her?" asked Giles.

"Okay," she handed the phone to Tiffany saying "Giles wants to talk to you."

"Hi," said Tiffany.

"Hello Tiffany, good to finally talk to you."

"Yeah," said Tiffany.

"How long have you been slaying Vampires?" asked Giles.

"Some time now," replied Tiffany.

"Must have been hard on your own," said Giles.

"Yeah, especially when it's someone you know," said Tiffany.

"Quite, anyway, I'll look forward to meeting you, can I talk to Faith again?" said Giles.

"Okay," Tiffany handed the phone back.

"I just want to say again, good work, and I'll see you at Heathrow," said Giles.

"Yeah, alright, see you then." She hung up.

"Willow's okay, she's back at base," said Faith.

"Good," Tiffany said. She looked depressed.

"What's up T?" asked Faith.

"When I tortured Daria, I honestly thought I was doing the right thing," said Tiffany.

Faith shrugged "I once tortured Wesley, in order to piss Angel off, you actually got he high ground compared to me."

"Daria was just being loyal to her friend," said Tiffany.

"Daria doesn't realise that her friends soul has gone bye-bye, she needs waking up," said Faith.

"I didn't do a good job with that, did I?" asked Tiffany.

"No … I can't fully support what you did, the circumstances didn't call for it. There are other vamps you could have been mopping up, but I can't deny that torture sometimes produces results, y'know?" said Faith, thinking back to when Wesley busted her out of prison to help him re-soul Angel. She had trouble using torture in an interrogation in front of him, he had to take over. She was glad he was over what she had done to him, even though his forgiveness felt undeserved.

-

Daria, Quinn and Sandi watched the news in the Morgendorffer living room.

Apparently an unknown group of hooligans had broken in and started chucking firecrackers about the place.

"Must have done a good job disguising the cracks," said Daria.

"Might have been a little more difficult to disguise a 2000km crater," said Sandi.

"Sorry about that shit I said earlier," said Daria.

"We rarely interact, and you were abused by two members of the Fashion Club, I understand the perception," said Sandi.

"I was lashing out at convenient targets. I choked my sister, and attacked her for being concerned," said Daria.

"Like Sandi said, pain makes you pickle happy," said Quinn.

"I just wish I could still interact with Jane. I mean, it's really fucked she has to avoid me now in order to avoid getting staked."

-

"Okay, you want a north facing apartment, you're going to have to share," said the land lord.

"Fair enough," said Jane.

"And I expect you to pay the rent on time," continued the landlord.

"Shouldn't be a problem most of the time," said Jane.

"And that other some of the time?" he asked.

"How long have you been a landlord?" asked Jane.

"Couple of weeks," he said.

"Okay, like I said, I don't anticipate problems with payment of the rent. But if they do occur, I would hope I could count on some understanding while I sort it out," said Jane.

"Whatever, first month up front," he said.

Jane handed over the first months rent, and he gave her the key.

-

Jane knocked.

"Some, one's at, the door," came a singsong voice with a strong London accent.

'Aww hell' thought Jane, before saying "I'm your new room mate, is it okay for me to enter?" asked Jane.

"Come, come, park your pretty bum," the singsong voice continued.

Jane opened the door, and entered, she found her room mate a dark haired 20ish female who resembled the lead singer from Evanescence, only with fangs.

And she had a dead body she was feeding off of.

Jane closed the door behind her, thinking 'ho-boy,' "I'm Jane Lane," she extended her hand for a handshake.

The woman took Janes hand and examined it and said "You're a vampire, but you're new, you don't like to do evil do you?"

'Double ho-boy,' she thought, saying "I guess not, what's your name?"

"You're shackled with a soul, but I will cure you of that."

'This is getting seriously creepy,' thought Jane.

-

End.


	2. Living Dead Girls 2: Corporate Seizure

Constraints: follows 'living dead girls'.

Synopsis: Daria and Jane deal with the changes that have occurred in 'living dead girls'

Living dead girls 2: Corporate Seizure 

Content: violence, some nudity.

Legal: Angel and Buffy belong to mutant enemy, Daria belongs to MTV, there are also phrases from SG1 and 'Evil dead III'. Also, I got invaluable advice from Thea Zara, Dervish, Ostragoth, Stalker and Roentgen on this.

-

Daria was headed to the public library to continue her education there, since she was still suspended.

The wounds had been inflicted on areas that were covered by clothing, so she didn't imagine having to face awkward questions from her parental units. But there might be problems come her first PE sessions after her suspension ended, although the continuing pain in her fingers (she claimed to have tripped and accidentally bent her fingers back in the fall) might allow her to skip PE.

Jane had also been suspended, but had also gone to ground, which had limited Daria's options as to who she could discuss these problems with, since Tom didn't know anything about any of the things she had become aware of. Attempting to describe the situation would most likely drive him away. The only people that left were Sandi and Quinn, who wouldn't want to be seen hanging around Daria, and would probably drive Daria nuts with their talk of fashion.

Things were beginning to suck big time.

"Hey Daria."

Daria turned to see the source of that voice. Illyria, looking (and sounding) like Stacy, was standing behind her, smiling, looking like the person she had hollowed out and occupied.

Daria frowned for a few seconds, then continued on her way.

Illyria formed up beside her and asked "where you headed?"

"Illyria? What the fuck do you think you're doing?" asked Daria.

"I'm … trying to have a pleasant conversation with you."

"Uh-huh, right, like the last one we had at Vallie … Whatsit … " said Daria.

"Vahla Ha'nesh?" offered Illyria.

"Whatever, what do you want? Not that I care, but … "

"Well, I'm kind of lost in your world, and my Qwa'ha Xahn has abandoned me. I need someone to help me learn how this new world works, so that I can survive."

"Right, well, I don't feel like helping you, I'm still mad at you for torturing me," said Daria.

"Aww, please don't be angry," she said, before moving up beside Daria and placing an arm around Daria's ribcage, pressing it against hers, causing the structure to flex painfully. Illyria then whispered in a husky voice "be afraid instead."

Daria reached into her jacket pocket and grabbed the crystal.

-

Illyria was holding Daria one second, and getting the shit beat out of her the next.

She had been on the floor for about 10 seconds receiving more blows before it all stopped and Daria appeared in front of her.

"Okay, here's a little advice about getting on in this world: Manners and pleasantries make people willing to help you, instead of plotting to shove you down a rock pulverizer."

Then Daria was gone, leaving Illyria to recover enough strength to crawl out of view.

Didn't anybody worship her any more?

-

"Gh-ohd, doesn't anyone worship us anymore?" Asked Sandi.

"Face it, two people do not make a Fashion Club," said Quinn.

"That case, we need to find an alternate way to make ourselves popular," said Sandi.

"How?" asked Quinn.

Sandi looked around, then noticed the bulletin board "How about we enter American Pop Idol 2?"

Quinn looked at the poster and said "I don't know about that. All they do is emotionally abuse and publicly humiliate the contestants, that would do more harm than good."

"Yeah, unless someone like Daria ends up on the contest. Her singing voice and her recitation of lyrics is quite excellent I noticed," said Sandi.

"Really? … I never noticed, are you sure?" asked Quinn.

"Absolutely," responded Sandi, with a nod.

Sandi then looked around.

"What?" asked Quinn, she then looked where Sandi was looking, and saw Angela walking away with her hands possibly in the 'I have found another way that will make me very, very right and very, very popular' position (which strangely seemed to resemble the sort of hand rubbing villains are portrayed as doing)

"Miss Li, eavesdropping, I think she could use a lesson in pain," said Sandi.

"My, we are feeling cranky today," commented Quinn, before saying "Are you sure we should use the nukes straight away?"

-

"Just a few things that need sorting out right now. You and your watcher failed to report in or respond to any phone calls, and an investigation failed to reveal your own or your watchers location. Could you tell me what happened?"

Tiffany looked at Giles, trying to work out how she was going to talk about this without bursting into tears.

"We were headed to my house, and we got ambushed."

-

_Tiffany and her watcher, Nathan, were discussing her performance in their last round of exercises when 4 vamps appeared from behind some bushes in front of them, and three behind._

"_Ohhh-kayyyyy … " said Nathan, trying to come up with a plan._

_They were both tooled with stakes, and had a decent amount of martial arts proficiency, but Tiffany was merely a potential slayer._

_But they were fucked if they didn't try something, so they each picked a vampire and engaged._

_They each splashed two before the remaining vamps knocked them out._

-

_When Tiffany awoke, her head felt like it was about a microbar from exploding._

_She saw a floor._

_A bare, wooden, dirty floor, covered in bits of charred foil and spliff ends, and, Nathan._

_She also noticed she couldn't move her arms, her wrists and elbows were tied together, and when she tried to sit up, she felt chain links moving around her neck._

_She was also butt naked._

_Her watcher on the other hand, was fully clothed, and free._

_That meant he was dead._

…

_Or …_

…

_Tiffany didn't want to think about it, but it was possible that …_

_Tiffany decided to instead work on escape. She could move her fingers, and her palms were facing inwards, so provided she could find a knife or a pair of scissors, she could at least free her arms, which left the chain on her neck._

_She looked around, the three surviving vamps were asleep on a sofa and two single mattresses. Her chain led along the floor to a hole, where it descended around one side of a beam and returned to be united to the rest of the chain with a padlock, she estimated 3 metres of chain._

_She also saw her stuff piled on a coffee table, her feet were free to move, so she got to her knees and made her way to the table to try to locate her nail file, and her stake._

_Neither were present._

_Not even her CS can (some of her patrol routes led her to more mundane bandits, where staking would be inappropriate)._

_Why was she even alive? Shouldn't they have drained her of blood by now?_

_Or was that going to be her watchers job?_

_She looked around some more, trying not to rattle the chain too much, she had to escape before the vamps- "Ahh, good evening." She froze._

_She looked to her 3o'clock position, the vamp on the sofa was awake._

"_Good news for you, you're not going to be turned or killed, you're going to live."_

-

"They found my blood to be quite tasty, so I was kept as a dessert," 'and a fuck toy,' she didn't add, either case would have been bad enough on its own.

"You wish to stop for a while?" asked Giles.

"No, might as well continue," said Tiffany, surprised at how well she was containing her emotions while recounting the events.

-

"_Where's the fucking lighter?" asked Max, the brown haired vamp._

"_How should I know?" asked Nathan._

_The other two were named Tom (black hair, slim build) and Jack (no hair, and a goatee). This had been several weeks into Tiffany's capture. They had been force feeding her iron supplements and soup. Sometimes one or more of them would fuck her too. It was getting to the point where she would go for being dead, but she was taking these bastards with her, or she would take them out and escape. Either way, they were going to die._

_Nathan walked up to her and lifted her by her chain "I bet you know where it is, don't you?"_

_Tiffany was forced to stand on her toes. She looked away from Nathan, but Nathan grabbed her face and forced her to look at him, her former watcher, now an enemy agent that fed on her and occasionally raped her, she realised she was scowling, and accurately predicted he would punch her in the stomach._

_Vampires hit like horses kick, and to be hung while punched that hard was a near death experience._

_But they weren't going to let her die._

_It wasn't just that potential slayer blood tasted nice, breaking her down into a caged animal also seemed to be giving them a lot of pleasure._

_Nathan's interrogation was cut short by the other vamps, and Tiffany was dropped onto the floor, where she coughed and tried to recover._

_After looking everywhere, the vamps concluded that it had just been misplaced by one of them, they decided to feed her the tinned soup cold. This was done one of two ways, either they would put it on a stainless bowl on the floor where she would lap it up, or they would shove a funnel that had a 2cm spout down her throat and pour it in, sealing her mouth and nose so she couldn't breathe until it was all down her neck._

_That will end in two days time._

_She had one chance to take them out. She fucked it up, they might amputate her hands, confine her even more tightly, any number of things, so she was going to wait a couple of days to be sure that they won't be watching her while pretending to be asleep._

-

_Nathan was awoken by a scream, then another joined the first as he opened his eyes. The room was on fire … because Tiffany had the lighter that had gone missing, and one of the butane cans for the camping hob._

_Before Nathan could do anything, Tiffany had turned the fire towards him. He tried to escape the flame, but was unsuccessful, and was unable to locate any means of extinguishing the fire before he turned to dust._

'_Splash four' Tiffany noted. She dropped the now empty can but retained the lighter. It was one of those long nose lighters, she had used her nail files under nail scraper to open the valve on the top, then she had used the lighter to spark the escaping gas._

_Now she lifted the tip of the lighter to burn through the 3mm rope that had been on her wrists for the past two weeks. The nylon rope melted and ignited, she felt immense pain, but it was about the same in intensity as the sores where the rope had been cutting into her skin, and nothing next to the blood rushing back into her hands. Her wrists were finally loose, that left her elbows, which were too tightly bound for her to just shrug off, she looked at the raging fires, those would burn off skin and muscle before freeing her elbows, she needed to get a smaller flame in there._

_She looked at her stuff which had been thrown into a corner, she walked over there, and felt the chain start to pull on her neck. She sat down and reached with her toes to pull a pen and a pencil into her reach._

_She pushed the pencil tip into the top of the pen, which split to admit the pencil, but held it. It seemed long enough to reach her elbows, she then lit the eraser._

-

"I then had to pick apart the beam with my nail file, that took for fuckin' ever, good thing the fires didn't have the fuel to ignite the structure. And then I saw the sores on my arms which were pretty deep, I decided I didn't want anyone to see them and start asking questions, so I pulled all the money out of my account and I got a street surgeon to disguise the wounds. I returned home, telling my parents I had run off because school was getting to me. They bought it, but I couldn't find the number for the watchers council, so I continued to work on my own. Then I was activated, I guessed that meant another slayer got KIA'd. Then I was found by Faith and Willow, they told me that all potentials had been activated in the battle against the … First Evil?"

"Yes, I'm surprised the people who made the first vampire slayer didn't think of that," said Giles, he then continued "you were very lucky with the street surgeon, a lot of them would have ended up increasing the damage."

"I know, I just wanted any reminders gone," said Tiffany.

"What about the mental reminders, nightmares, anxiety attacks, has anything like that presented?" asked Giles.

"Used to, but those seem to have gotten better," said Tiffany.

"Hmm … you're talking at normal speed now without the magic, Faith said she had Willow speed your time frame?"

Tiffany looked down at the floor, she then brought up the words "I was doing this drug I found that slows the brain while allowing me to fight, hence the reduced nightmares and anxiety attacks."

"Do you feel you can come off that now?" asked Giles.

"I can try, I have been unable to replenish my supplies in the past couple of days, but I think I can come off those now," said Tiffany.

"You can always get help if you feel you need it, there are plenty of institutions within our theatre of war that offer counselling and preserve client anonymity," said Giles.

"I know," said Tiffany.

"Right, well, now there's the question of what to do with you, do you feel up to returning to Lawndale?"

"I don't know … oh, crap, my parents, I've disappeared again, what do I tell them?"

"Oh, they think you're helping the FBI with something you supposedly witnessed when you were missing, and that you won't be able to tell them about it, but feel free to make something up for them if you feel you have to."

"Thanks … I really made a mess in Lawndale, my friends, Quinn and Sandi, they're mad at me for interrogating Quinn's sister," said Tiffany.

"Yes, Faith mentioned that, the vampire you were after is her friend, Jane Lane?" asked Giles.

"Yes, she was Daria's friend, Daria can't accept that Jane is dead, and that the thing that replaced her is some vicious killer … it's not Daria's fault, I should have left her alone and concentrated on other vamps … speaking of, I should return to Lawndale soon," said Tiffany.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" asked Giles.

"No … but I won't make things better by hiding out over here, I could probably use a watcher though, I've missed the input," said Tiffany.

"Very well then, I have someone who has originated from the United States, and he is now qualified to work as a watcher," said Giles.

-

"And now we're on our way back to Lawndale, where the courageous Faith and Tiffany faced off against impossible odds to save the planet from the self destructing old one." said Andrew with irritating enthusiasm.

"Where the brave Tiffany had to use her wits to escape a nest of cruel vampires-" started Andrew.

Only to be interrupted by Tiffany saying "Yeah, a little louder, I don't think the passengers right at the back can hear you blab my confidence away."

Andrew looked at her infuriated face with a deep sense of shame.

"Errm … sorry," he finally said.

Tiffany pressed her head back into her seat and said "just out of curiosity, what knowledge is needed to qualify you to be a watcher anyway?"

"Well … Okay, that was stupid of me just now, but I have proven myself capable of being a watcher," replied Andrew.

"Right, just try to cut back on the melodrama, 'sides, Daria helped us save the world. I just hope she can tolerate my presence when we get back. have you been made aware of what happened prior to me and Faith receiving the equipment from Willow?" asked Tiffany, she then added "Yes or no only," as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Yes," he finally said.

"I was obsessed with Jane for some reason, and I got mad at Daria for her interference. Doesn't help that I had been medicating myself with those pills. Oh, that reminds me, now I'm off the meds, if I'm asleep when we land, do not touch me, I might break your arm before I'm awake enough to realise I'm not in that nest," she said.

"Right," said Andrew, he looked out the window and saw it getting dark.

-

Jane entered the apartment and headed for the kitchen, she glanced around the apartment, seeing those creepy dolls with the blindfolds.

It turned out that the entire north side of this block of apartments was occupied by vampires. Some were gangsters (having great strength and a certain moral flexibility being advantages in that field of work). Some were 'blood whores', feeding off people who paid for the experience (getting paid for what you do and enjoy anyway is understandably attractive). And others had more legitimate jobs on the night shift (Dayshift for those working on the New York underground). She worked at a butchers mostly receiving goods, shelf stacking, cleaning. Part of her pay was in animal blood, of which she had a batch now.

She put it in the fridge and got an older tub out and poured it into a mug. She added a load of cinnamon to it, her latest experiment to see if she could get a better taste, and stuck it in the microwave for 5 minutes low power.

She leant against the kitchen counter and looked in the direction of her roommate's room, where her roommate was probably sleeping under a now bloodless corpse.

Her thing seemed to be pulling a man, and feeding off him while he fucked her, and not revealing her name.

She had asked the girls name numerous times since she had moved in, but had received insane rambling singsong … gibberish for an answer.

Insane girl's half of the rent came from her victim's wallets.

Hopefully the IRS won't do them for failing to pay the inheritance tax.

Occasionally, one of the vamps will kill the landlord, happened every 3 weeks apparently. They'd also cook the books so that the ones that were recorded as having been behind on payments were instantly ahead.

Jane was barely tolerated by the other vamps, her attitude towards taking lives made them think she was some sort of traitor, or insane.

The unnamed girl started talking to her latest victim.

'I'm insane?' Jane thought sarcastically.

She wondered how Daria was doing without her, their falling out over the Tom situation had demonstrated Daria's dependence on Jane for emotional support, and now Jane was on the run because of some vigilante vampire hunter.

She had told Jane to go somewhere SHE wouldn't think of … She was expecting Tiffany to torture her for answers. … She had to find out the situation, but … nah, no way Tiffany would have access to call tracing equipment … or if she did, she'd use it for a paperweight.

She picked up the phone and dialled the number.

-

"Mystic pound, for all your stray demon needs," answered Daria.

"Hey Amiga," said Jane.

"Hi, how've you been?" asked Daria.

"Okay, got a north facing apartment, got a job, butchers, lots of free blood, and I got an insane vamp for a roommate who won't tell me her name, you?"

"Well, my suspension's nearly over, I'll be back at school tomorrow. Some really weird shit happened after you left, Tiffany came after me looking for you, using shocks and cuts, then Illyria had a rather unpleasant chat about a perceived assassination attempt. Now she's lost most of her powers, still has enhanced strength, but she can't function in this world, and after what she did to me, I'm thinking of introducing her to hard narcotics and pimping her off for about five bucks a shag," Daria said.

"Ouch, what did she do to you?" asked Jane.

"Tenderised me, then she stretched my back out, almost to failure point. I just hope she catches something really nasty and dies a slow torturous death," said Daria.

"And you're back at school tomorrow?" asked Jane.

"Yep, I'm just dreading facing Morris alone," said Daria.

"Double Ouch … On the plus side, I saw American Pop Idol 2 was going to be held at your school. Maybe Kevin and Brittany will enter and get a new one ripped out of their ego by Cowel and that green guy, assuming he's as mean," said Jane.

Daria laughed and said "Yeah, that might make me feel better, Emphasise the might though."

"How about the Fashion Club? Quinn or Sandi crying, or Sta- Illyria or Tiffany turning Cowel into hamburger meat? Mayhem, mayhem, mayhem? Anyway, I'll call again tomorrow," said Jane.

"Yeah, bye," said Daria, then Jane hung up.

Daria was glad that Jane was okay, it had been two weeks since Jane had left, and she had been seriously worried for her.

Jane hadn't revealed her location, and Daria thought that prudent, even though she had the impression that the slayers had lost interest in Jane, it seemed a bad idea to tempt fate.

-

The plane pulled into the terminal, and the passengers started gathering their belongings.

Except Andrew and Tiffany.

Tiffany was asleep, and her advice was ringing loudly in Andrews ears. Tiffany might cause severe injury to anyone who grabs her while she's asleep.

But if he didn't wake her soon, one of the flight attendants would, and then Tiffany would be wanted for assault, if not arrested.

He braced himself and tapped the back of Tiffany's hand.

He kept at it until Tiffany stirred.

"We're at Lawndale now," he said.

"Right," Tiffany rubbed her face and sat up.

Andrew felt considerable relief that he didn't get his arm mangled.

"Any nightmares?" he asked.

"No actually, maybe those pills had served a useful purpose after all," they got their stuff and disembarked.

-

Daria entered the kitchen looking a little spacey.

"Daria? You look awful!" said Helen.

"What?" asked Daria, before blinking, she then headed to the toaster to make herself some pop tarts.

"Daria, you look like you've been up all night, what were you doing?"

Daria turned to Helen again, shook her head, said "What?" before finally returning to her task of making breakfast.

Quinn entered the room and said "'morning Daria, ready for your first day back?"

Daria blinked at her a few times and said "What?"

"Ah," said Quinn, before checking the kettle, switching it on, and loading a cup with 6 spoonfuls of Nescafe dilithium residue.

"Um, Quinn honey? Isn't that a touch excessive?"

Quinn looked at Daria and said "actually, this not might be enough," before adding two more spoonfuls.

Daria responded to the toaster ejecting the pop tarts three seconds after the event.

Soon as the kettle switched off, Quinn poured the water into the cup, stirred it a few times, and managed to get the cup to Daria's lips just before she got the pop tart there. Hopefully the lack of food in front would get the caffeine where it's needed in about two seconds.

Daria shuddered, and her mind was at military.

"Whoa, thanks Quinn." said Daria, she then took the cup from Quinn and consumed the coffee and the pop tart as Helen asked "You ready to return to school?"

"I suppose." said Daria.

"You're not going to trash the library or something else, are you?"

"First off, that was Jane, and she only did that accidentally while trying to defend herself," said Daria.

"If that's the story you would like to maintain-" started Helen.

But Daria interrupted with "Besides, the amount of effort needed to shift one of those book cases … "

Helen thought about it and said "Oh yeah … Okay, fair enough."

-

"You get any sleep at all last night Daria?" asked Quinn as they walked to school.

"Yeah, I slept one out of five seconds," said Daria "stupid post traumatic stress disorder."

"You might think about getting help," suggested Quinn.

"Thought about it, rejected it, on account that the second I start talking about Illyria possessing Stacy and abducting me to another dimension, slowing time, and the fact Tiffany was interrogating me in pursuit of a vampire, I'll start getting treated for schizophrenia," said Daria.

"Oh, right … You talk to Jane at all?" asked Quinn.

"Yeah, talked to her last night. She's fine, got a crazy vampire roommate, a job at a butchers, north facing apartment, so no direct sunlight ever," said Daria.

"Unless Al Qaeda hit her city with one of those missing suitcase nukes," said Quinn.

Daria looked at her and asked "Have you been watching the history channel?"

"This isn't history, this is the present, I was watching that survival program that the SAS guy was doing," said Quinn.

"Still a documentary, you're not worried about it making you unpopular?" asked Daria.

"Not if people don't find out ab- … " Quinn froze, looking worried.

"Relax, not gonna blackmail you, not in the mood … wonder what that's about?" said Daria.

Marcus Hamilton appeared beside them "Morgendorffer and Morgendorffer, I see you're headed off to school, so I'll make this quick. Daria, the crystal you used to help you protect your fair town, is property of Wolfram and Hart, I have been asked to retrieve it."

"Erm … Illyria's come at me again, the crystal is the only advantage I have over her," said Daria.

"Well, if that's the way you feel on the matter, I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement," said Marcus as he circled around to Daria's side.

He then grabbed Daria by her throat and lifted her about 30cm into the air without any tell whatsoever, and as Daria struggled to get his hand off her, he retrieved the crystal from her pocket. He then said "Illyria is a minor irritation compared to what my firm will do if you try to interfere with our operations again. You should have returned the crystal immediately, I think under the circumstances I was being Very polite. That will not happen in future, is that understood?" he asked.

Daria tried to say yes, but couldn't, she nodded as far as she could.

"Excellent, I'll let you get back to what you were doing then," he then dropped Daria on her ass and disappeared (possibly using the crystal rather than any other magic)

Quinn helped Daria to her feet as she coughed and recovered.

"You okay Daria?" asked Quinn.

"Fine … next time I'm on E-bay, I'll start looking for a non-metallic gun. I've really had it up to here with everyone else being able to attack me at will," said Daria, as she rubbed her throat.

-

As Daria approached the school, she saw two people she didn't want to see.

"Tiffany's back," commented Quinn.

"She was absent?" asked Daria.

"For the duration of your suspension," said Quinn.

"And Illyria?" asked Daria.

"Showed up every day, looking like Stacy. She kept her distance from Sandi and me, but I still wish she would just disappear for good," said Quinn.

Tiffany approached them.

"What does she want?" asked Daria.

Tiffany stopped one point five metres from them, standing with her mouth slightly open as if she was trying to come up with something to say.

Tiffany finally said "That stuff I did to you that night, I shouldn't have. I'm sorry I did that. I'm not going to ask you to forgive me for it, and I won't do anything like that again … I'll be gone now … as far as my required presence at school will allow … " she then headed into school.

Daria and Quinn looked at each other.

"At least she was contrite," said Daria.

"She was talking faster, without moving like a character on fast forward," said Quinn.

"So when she tortured me, she may not have been firing in all cylinders?" asked Daria.

"I suppose," said Quinn.

"That's not getting her off," said Daria, before also heading into school.

A few seconds later, Quinn followed.

-

Angel looked in disbelief as Eve signed the form that Marcus had produced.

"Thank you," he said.

"What the Hell's going on?" asked Angel.

"Oh, sorry for the intrusion, I'm Marcus Hamilton, your new liaison to the senior partners," he then pointed out another part of the contract for Eve to sign.

"You're what?" asked Angel.

"Along with her immortality and certain other privileges, Eve has signed over her duties to me," he then flipped to the back page and told Eve to initial there.

"This was about a contract? I thought you said you were gonna die," said Angel.

"And now, one day, I will," said Eve.

"The senior partners felt it was time for a change, Eve was too easily distracted. Lost sight of the big picture," said Marcus.

"I fell in love," said Eve.

"Yes, congratulations," he said to eve, then he turned to Angel and said "Wonderful escape, by the way, very clever, we'll be in touch, Oh, I have some excellent ideas I can't wait to share." Angel approached Marcus and said "This is my house, the only ideas that matter are mine." "Absolutely," said Marcus, not loosing his cheerful demeanor "The senior partners are behind you 100." 

"I doubt that," said Angel, this had been a really weird day. He couldn't believe he had decided to spring Lindsey from that holding dimension, since he was one of those people that Angel felt deserved that kind of thing, but then, he also felt Knox could to (Gunn had brought him along especially for this after they had found out he had intended to infect Winifred with Illyria, and while someone else was still dead from that, he was still relieved it wasn't Winifred)

-

"Miss Morgendorffer, are you aware that Lawndale will be hosting American Pop Idol 2?" Asked Angela.

"Yes, you have made me aware of that 4 times now. What of it?" asked Daria.

"If you enter, the damage to the library will be removed from your permanent record," she explained.

"Yes, but my criminal record will include the sadistic murder of Simon Cowel, nice try Angela."

"Principal Li to you, it is hiiiighly disrespectful for you as a student to use my first name," she said.

"Yes, it is, isn't it Angela?" said Daria before walking off.

-

"Tiffany?"

Tiffany closed her locker and turned to Illyria.

"Tell me you don't think that the fact both of us are now on Sandi and Quinn's shitlist makes us friends. Because I saw you abduct Willow, then I visited her in hospital after you dislocated a large number of her limbs, then her Friend Fred, who, fair enough, is now working for Wolfram and Hart, but Willow still considers her a friend … just fuck off, Illyria, be gone."

"Aww, come on, we were friends-" started Illyria.

But Tiffany spun, putting her fist (followed by a sizable dent) into the locker. "NO, ILLYRIA, STACY and I were friends, YOU are some DEMON, WEARING HER BODY, LIKE A SICK COSTUME, FEEL FREE TO FOOL EVERYONE ELSE, BUT DO NOT PRETEND TO BE HER TO ME!" Tiffany then walked off.

Illyria considered weather or not she wanted to follow her shells behaviour pattern and cry, or just walk off.

-

Winifred entered Angel's office and asked "what's up?"

"Apparently, the senior partners need you for a special project," said Angel.

"You will be briefed upon arriving on location," added Marcus.

"Okay, any hints? A list of stuff I need to bring?" asked Winifred

"All necessary equipment will be provided on site," said Marcus.

"Okay, that case I need to select a temp for science here," said Winifred.

"Fred, a word," said Wesley.

-

"Anything the senior partners would want you for, it is guaranteed to be evil," said Wesley when they were in the briefing room.

"Wesley, we've been in evil inc. for the good part of a year now, save the good, I know the drill," said Winifred.

"Fred, this is different, your direct superior at Wolfram and Hart LA is Angel, the SPs have refrained from micromanaging us, but in this instance, what you will be doing will directly help the SPs cause, you will be isolated from friendly forces," said Wesley.

"I know, I've been alone in unfriendly territory before, remember? 5 years in Pylea, on the run, eating bark, almost got dead a bunch of times?" said Winifred.

"Okay, but make sure you gather as much information as possible while you work," said Wesley.

"I'll try," said Winifred.

-

Andrew picked up Tiffany from in front of the school.

"How was your first day back?" asked Andrew.

"Unusual, everyone was surprised to hear my real voice. Sandi, Quinn, and Daria look at me like I'm something they wiped off their ass, and Illyria had the nerve to attempt to use Stacy's form to convince me we're friends," said Tiffany.

"Illyria, the ancient god king of the primordium, who returned to this world by infecting an innocent little girl, whose body was unsuitable for the task, and only through the co-operation of our former allies in Los Angeles, and the co-operation of a girl who became hostile to us-" started Andrew

But Tiffany interrupted with "I know the story, Andrew, I lived it, remember? And why do you have to over dramatise everything?"

"Erm … sorry … " said Andrew.

"You still haven't answered my question," said Tiffany.

Suddenly the car died.

"Whoa, we just lost warp power Katherine!" asked Andrew.

"End of warranty?" suggested Tiffany.

Suddenly something smashed through the floor behind them and filled the cabin with a clear gas.

"That's getting-" Tiffany started, but was interrupted by her falling unconscious.

-

Andrew was awoken by someone knocking on the window.

It was a cop.

"Sir, you'll have to move your vehicle, it's obstructing traffic."

Andrew nodded, then he looked around "crap, where's Tiffany?"

"Who?" asked the cop.

"Tiffany, Chinese girl, blue dress … "

"Would you like to report a missing person?" asked the cop.

Andrew thought about it, then said "no," and tried to restart the car, but it wasn't even rotating. "Crap." He looked behind him, then said "you mind pushing my car with yours?"

-

Tiffany woke up on a cold hard floor, with no clothes on.

This was not the sort of thing that brought back happy memories.

She opened her eyes and looked around.

She was in a cage, it was gloss white (possibly powder coated carbon steel), twenty millimetre bars spaced fifteen centimetres apart, cage measuring zero point six metres cubed. The floor was made of what looked like plain steel sheet, the floor was slightly concave (pyramid like) with a hole in the centre, she couldn't see the floor through it.

There were other cages, same dimensions, all on casters, like she figured hers was. Underneath the centre of the cages there was some sort of gutter leading to a small plastic jar, she guessed for collecting urine samples from their occupants. The room was well lit, breezeblock wall painted white, grey painted floor with yellow lines marking a passage way.

The lids of the cages she could see had a padlock on the roof connecting two rings together, it looked too strong for her, but she wasn't waiting for some guards to show up if she didn't have to. She got on her back and pressed her feet against the ceiling of her cage.

-

"Giles, I have a dire situation to report, a situation where Tiffany Blum Deckler may be in severe peril, and may be unable to save herself-"

"Get to the point," said Giles, he was getting just a little frustrated with Andrews over dramatization of his reports.

"Someone attacked us with sleeping gas and when I awoke, Tiffany was gone. I have no Idea who took her, and I'm waiting for a mechanic to show up and figure out what happened to the car," said Andrew.

"Thank you, okay, I'm sending Faith and Willow to assist you in your search," said Giles.

-

"Religiously I'm speaking on the science 'cause  
We've gotta live on science alone  
I tell you what mathematically I'm having it  
I want to live on science alone."

Lilah was getting a lot annoyed with Winifred's singing that song over and over and over and over and- she felt her sidearm in her handbag again, but kept reminding herself of what would happen if she interfered with the operation to corrupt team Angel.

At least they would be landing in half an hour. She just had to hold herself for that long. Plus the time it takes to get to the New York branch of Wolfram and Hart, through gridlock, another half hour. Remember the punishment dimension, remember the punishment dimension, remember the analysis and freaky sensitivity, we gotta live on science alo- "GAAAAAAH"

Winifred and the two security goons looked at her.

"Did I say that out loud?" she asked.

-

Jane was about to head off to work, when her room mate walked past her with her latest victim over her shoulder wrapped in garbage bags.

"What exactly do you do with those anyway?" she asked.

"I give the leftovers to the nice people at Wolfram and Hart, they will be given a nice home," replied the insane girl.

"Right," Jane remembered the name of the company from one of her conversations with Illyria. They were a law firm, and they gathered dead people. This was a very strange firm.

Jane decided to call Daria before heading out.

-

"Okay, that is unusual for a Law firm … I hope … but not that surprising considering they sent a clean up team after I blew a number of holes in the school," said Daria.

"You blew up the school?" asked Jane.

"Only bits of it, epic battle with the Slayers when I thought they were about to ask me more questions about you. Turned out they wanted my help in saving the planet from Illyria," said Daria.

"Anything else happening your end?" asked Jane.

"Well, Tiffany's back, she apologised for torturing me. Hamilton, guy who lead the cleanup team asked me to hand over the crystal, offered to stop strangling me if I did, that was very nice of him, and Angela tried to get me to enter American Pop Idol 2 in the hopes of getting me to disembowel Simon Cowel on national television," said Daria.

"That evil, vindictive bitch. Look, I gotta get off to work now, I'll talk to you later, okay?" said Jane.

"Yeah, catch you later," said Daria, before hanging up.

The door opened and Faith and Andrew walked in. "Hi Daria. Tiffany disappeared on her first day back, and since you weren't happy with her, it got me thinking that you might have motive to do something unpleasant to her."

Thinking how much she hadn't wanted to see Faith again, she said "Yeah, but I didn't, Tiffany disappeared? When?"

"Just after school, she was with Andrew, their car died, then it filled with sleeping gas. Then he awoke to find Tiffany missing," said Faith.

"So she was abducted from a motor vehicle … I couldn't have done that, not alone anyway. There anyone else you like for this?" asked Daria.

"You mean the kind of help, like, say, a vampire who you insist on befriending?" asked Faith.

"Jane isn't interested in getting back at Tiffany, and she only found out Tiffany was back a few minutes ago. Now seriously, is there anyone else you may consider motivated to abduct Tiffany?" said Daria.

Faith and Andrew thought about this for a while.

Then, deciding the best way to get them to stop blaming all their troubles on her would be to actually help them recover their missing slayer, Daria said "where did you put the car?"

Faith hesitated before saying "It's still at the garage, we have the device that was used on it."

"Uh, Faith, a word?" said Andrew.

-

"Faith, are you sure we can trust her? She could be doing a Seska on us"

"A … a what?" asked Faith.

"Seska was a Cardassian surgically altered to look Bajoran, she infiltrated the Maquis, then betrayed Voyager after the Marquis and Starfleet crews merged to the Kazon Nistrim," explained Andrew.

Faith nodded and said "well that was a waste of a perfectly good explanation, so surmised, you think Daria may be playing us?"

"Yes," said Andrew.

"Well, then, we'll just have to keep her closer, as in, than our friends," said Faith.

"Oh, you mean like in Voyager episode 1:11, State of flux?" asked Andrew.

Faith sort of nodded and said "Yeah, I suppose," she then headed back to Daria's room.

-

Winifred was shown the laboratory, she was introduced to her XO, John Foley (redhead man with freckles and a serious look, Winifred's height), and the store room. Her lab was kitted out for what looked like medical experiments, it even included a full MRI sensor, with restraints, and nearer the large steel sliding door, there was a stainless steel table with restraints.

She was probably going to be dissecting a creature of human proportions, or possibly even a …

Crap, what if She WAS ordered to dissect a human?

"Okay, I'd like to show you what it is you will be looking at," said Lilah.

They headed off to another room.

They were accompanied into the room by some guards.

-

Tiffany looked to the left, the direction she heard the noise from, she curled up, decided to pretend to be asleep. Maybe she could learn something from these guys.

Tiffany was wondering if she should be experiencing an anxiety attack (she had barely avoided taking peoples heads off for bumping into her or otherwise startling her just after she returned home from that vampire nest), waking up in a cage slightly bigger than her bedside unit with no clothes on should surely have her futilely struggling to escape. But she was instead feeling irritation, and was patiently waiting to gather information prior to attempting an escape.

Probably the sedatives, they have probably yet to fully clear out of her.

She also recognised that waiting too long could cause the conditions necessary for a successful escape to expire, they could close off escape routes, she could be injured in such a way that reduces her mobility or her senses. Tiffany was not into gambling, and she was being forced to by her captivity, failure to initiate an escape at the correct time would most likely result in her death. It was like being forced to walk across a minefield without so much as a bayonet and being forbidden from using any means of detecting the mines other than stepping on them. You don't walk, you're dead, your only hope is to take an otherwise insane risk.

And then there was the possibility that there was no way to escape, no opportunity would arise.

A brunette woman in a grey striped business suit with a scar circling her neck and a skinny brunette woman in a white lab coat and glasses walked into view, accompanied by two men in SAS costumes.

"Fred, meet Tiffany Blum Deckler, don't let her appearance fool you, Girl's not entirely human."

'Fred' knelt in front of the cage and looked in, asking "what is it you want me to do with her?"

"Find the source of her strength, find a way to neutralise it with a chemical, mystical, or biological agent that can be placed in water, food, whatever," said the woman in the grey suit.

Fred? … Willow called her friend Fred … Tiffany mentally slapped her forehead and thought 'of course, Wolfram and Hart! Hopefully Fred will help me escape'

"Right, I'm going to need a moment to think about how to proceed here. How did you come across her?" said Fred.

"We captured her. She is one of a group of people who have been causing our firm a lot of trouble lately," said the woman in grey, before squatting in front of the cage and saying "but now you are going to help us solve the problems your group has created, aren't you?"

Tiffany didn't respond, she wasn't going to escape on begging or insulting, just like last time, she was going to have to await an opportunity to escape, and take it.

-

"The mechanic found this when he lifted the car overhead," said Andrew as he handed Daria the item.

"You know, if you had contacted the police, you might have some answers by now," said Daria as she turned the item over in her hands.

The item had what looked like skateboard wheels, some motors, a cylinder, and a battery pack. There were two probes sticking out the front, and the hollow drill that had been used to deliver the sedative to the car. There was also an array of cameras.

Daria turned it upside down and mouthed "Any radiation?"

"I haven't checked," said Andrew, he then continued "All I know is how I found it, and the mechanic said the cars electronics were fried. Why did you mouth the question, Daria?"

"No reason," she said, then she asked "got a stainless steel box big enough to enclose this thing?"

-

Jane was headed home after a night of taking goods for the butchers.

She had just gotten on the tube when she felt something burn her back. "Arrgh," she turned to see a South American girl dressed in a blue overall, purple jumper, holding a wooden cross with a sharpened base. She turned the cross so the point came out between the middle and ring fingers. Jane deflected the weapon as she made to stab Jane with it. She kicked the girl's right knee away from her, the girl kicked Jane back with her left foot, Jane bounced off some seats and landed head first on the opposite row, the girl was coming at her again. Jane kicked the girl back and flipped backwards, landing in a fighting pose, she then pulled a MAC 10, the girl froze, being too far away to reach the weapon.

Jane waved her back and as the girl complied, Jane got to her bag of blood tubs, she picked that up and waited for the train to stop.

The doors opened, Jane waited a little more.

Then she jumped out just as the doors were closing, waiting until the train was clear before stowing her weapon.

"So, another Vampire cliché rings true, and, I'm going to have to move again, aren't I?"

-

"This looks like an expensive piece of kit, are there any large corporate entities your organisation have annoyed?" asked Daria.

Faith, Andrew, and Willow looked at each other.

"Okay, what about Tiffany, she make any long term enemies?" asked Daria.

After breaking into the high school science lab, they had established that the device was not emitting any RF radiation, so they felt safe to talk around it.

"There's Jane," said Faith.

"She has no interest in Tiffany, and if she did, Tiffany would have stayed in the car, but would have lost her mind. Which would be decorating the cars interior about now, and I haven't seen anything that will convince me she's capable of killing someone," said Daria.

"Vampires are capable of incredible sadism," said Faith.

"I can guarantee you that the vampire version of a person is nothing like the person they were," said Willow.

Daria turned to them "Have you guys ever encountered a vampire?"

Faith started counting off fingers while Willow shrugged, Faith and Willow then, in unison, said "a lot."

"Right, because Jane was exactly as I had always known her, only now her teeth are occasionally pointy. If she was as mean as you say she is supposed to be, there are a bunch of people that would have turned up dead and bloodless by now," said Daria.

"You see her all the time?" asked Faith.

"No … look, what you're saying about her, as far as I can tell doesn't track … … Hang on, Illyria found her refusal to kill unusual, said something about her having a soul," said Daria.

"WHAT?" shouted Faith.

Daria shook her head and turned back to the device, she then said "I'm gonna open this thing up, maybe there will be something inside that will-"

Faith interrupted Daria saying "ARE YOU TELLING ME JANE HAS A SOUL?"

Daria looked up surprised "well, yes, I am … Why, what's with the dramatics?"

Faith walked back to her original position waving her arms in frustration.

Daria turned to Andrew and Willow and asked "well?"

"Vampires with souls, tend to be good, those without tend to be evil. We only knew of two with souls, and, if you're right, we now know of three," said Willow.

Daria looked between them, then asked "does that mean, that if I had told one of you of this fact, that JANE COULD HAVE STAYED HERE AND GOTTEN ON WITH HER LIFE INSTEAD OF HAVING TO GO ON THE RUN?"

Faith turned to her, then asked "got anything on that device?"

"Not yet, I'm gonna open it up, but first I want to get an X-ray of it, make sure there are no explosives. I'll have to make an X-ray tube-" started Daria, but Willow said "No need, excuse me." She stepped in around Daria and closed her eyes as if in meditation, she then said "no explosives."

Daria looked at Willow fro a couple of seconds and said "Okay then," and then opened the device.

As the chassis came off, Daria put on a pair of gloves and started removing the circuit boards.

"All these devices look store bought, I'm gonna fume it for prints, but those won't be of use unless we can access AFIS," said Daria.

"Ooh, that's my job," Willow said, as she set up her laptop and hooked it up to her cell phone while Daria moved the parts to the fume box.

Faith leaned close to willow and asked "AFIS?"

"Automated Fingerprint Identification System," replied Willow, to which Faith Whispered "Ah."

-

"So, this is my job," said Winifred, as she prepared to carry out her first series of tests.

The first series of tests were going to be fluid and tissue samples. Hopefully this would buy her enough time to figure out how to get Tiffany out.

She suspected if it was just Lilah and the suits, she could make stuff up, but there was also John Foley, her assistant. She figured the guy knew his science, and would be able to spot if she was attempting to bullshit them, so she would have to at least take samples and perform the appropriate experiments while plotting Tiffany's escape.

She didn't know if Lilah knew she knew, but Winifred knew good and well Tiffany was a vampire slayer. Willow had told her about Tiffany in the infirmary at the LA branch … would Willow now think SHE had gone dark side now? Obviously the watchers council no longer trusted them, that had become apparent when Andrew had come to pick up Dana, but now Willow would be extra suspicious of her from now on.

The cage was wheeled in by two goons. They then closed the door to the lab, one of them produced the key for the padlock, the other pulled a tazer.

The guy opening the door glanced at the guy with the tazer, before pulling the lid open.

Tiffany stood up slowly, knowing now was not the time.

"Where do you want her?" he asked.

"On this table," she said.

Winifred glanced at the window overlooking the lab, Lilah and a couple of other suits were standing there. Winifred didn't know how long she could go without carrying out a destructive test on Tiffany, but if she acted before she had a plan of action, she'll most likely get herself killed without Tiffany getting any less trapped.

Tiffany stepped out of the cage and sat on the bed, she placed her limbs in the restraints, Winifred was the obvious candidate to strap her down.

Wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck (brace), waist, knees, and ankle straps were applied.

"Okay, I'll need to take a number of fluid and tissue samples. I'll be as gentle as I can," she said, before picking up a double ended needle and an evacuated tube.

"A friend of mine knows another girl called Fred, perhaps you know of her. There can't be that many in a single corporation," said Tiffany.

"Your friend's name Willow Rosenberg?" she said as she wiped the extraction site with ethanol and inserted the needle.

"Why, yes it is," said Tiffany.

"Oh, then I'm that same Fred," she said, as she drew the blood sample.

"I don't suppose there's any chance I can convince you to get me out of here?" asked Tiffany.

"No, sorry, they tend to do worse than fire people for that kind of thing around here," she said.

-

"No one on AFIS," concluded Willow.

Daria said "Okay … " then she got up and headed for the store room.

She then returned with a spray bottle of Luminal and a cotton bud saying "this is a bit of a long shot, but I'm not sure what else to try right now," she sprayed each board with it, and watched for any florescence (the main lights were off anyway so they don't draw too much attention)

"Here we go," she swabbed the bright spot

"But don't we need a special … DNA thingy for that to be of use?" asked Faith.

"Yep, it's in the security room, Willow, any spells that can make us invisible, or the guards asleep, something like that?"

-

The last two tissue extractions had been bone marrow extractions, which couldn't have been done under anaesthesia because it could have interfered with the tests. She would perform the relevant experiments, but she would do them very slowly, and, when she had an idea how to get Tiffany out, prepare the devices she would need.

Then there was the question of how far Tiffany would trust her, after the pain she had caused her. Tiffany held down her expressions of pain, but had shown serious distress, and it was Winifred who had caused it. That sat very uncomfortably with her, then there was the fact that Tiffany was a slayer, one of the good guys … yeah, like that's any different from how it would be if she were just a random stranger picked off the street.

On the plus side, her being a slayer meant that Tiffany could bring something to the escape. All Winifred had to do was to make Tiffany Tazer proof, and give her the means to cut through the doors. She suddenly had an Idea.

"It just occurred to me, it might be useful to get an ova from her, John, could you get the fertility kit?"

She should have the first escape aid ready by the next time she would see Tiffany, but in order to enable Tiffany to use it, she would have to carry out a procedure that would A: give her an excuse to have her hands on Tiffany's crotch, and B: give her an excuse to lubricate it so the escape aid could be inserted in no time flat, that would mean doing a procedure that would … suddenly Winifred wasn't feeling so clever, since sexual assaults tend to be a special kind of torture, this would have some seriously persistent consequences.

This wasn't even following orders (as if that was ever an excuse), this procedure was on her own initiative, she felt like some kind of rapist.

Rape was perceived as an act of theft at one time (and still is in some places), of course, that was where women were thought of as property, not people, but she was going to steal an ova from Tiffany, indecently assaulting her, in full view and at the pleasure of the forces of evil, any more symbolism, and the act would develop a noticeable gravity well.

-

"Nothing on CODIS either," said Daria.

"It's like section 31," said Andrew.

"The law banning the promotion of gay rights in the British school system?" asked Faith, she and Willow having spent enough time in Britain to be aware of such political debates.

"No, that's Section 28, Andrew's referring to a star fleet version of the CIA," said Daria.

"Honestly, you couldn't get it right?" asked Willow.

"Well, sorry, you rant about it so often, I just tune out," said Faith.

"Well, it doesn't just affect lesbians, it also affects women who can be mistaken for lesbians, and since strong women are often presumed to be gay, it affects Slayers, straight or gay," said Willow.

"While I find it commendable that you take an interest in human rights, I feel we should get back to the topic at hand," said Daria.

"Okay, so now what?" asked Faith.

They headed back to the lab.

"Someone had to make that machine, and it looked like it was done on a production line in a factory, Chassis was injection moulded, a process that is only economical for mass production, boards were drilled by a robot, marked by a robot, components were installed by a robot." She turned the board over and pointed at the soldered leads "leads bent and cut by a machine, the leads are all bent the same way, cut at the same distance, have the same amount of solder. This green layer, solder resistant paint, only worth it for mass soldering processes such as wave or dip. Some of these processes require tools made specifically for this item. All use machines too expensive for a one off, so whoever made it owns a factory and is supplying someone who does this kind of thing on a regular basis. So come on, think, have you encountered ANYONE, who has these kinds of resources?" said Daria.

"The government did this initiative thing a couple of years ago," said Willow.

"Then there's Wolfram and Hart," said Faith. She stopped where she was, smacked herself on the forehead John Cleese style, and said "IDIOT!"

"So, they do law, ancient artefacts, crime scene makeovers, corpse recycling, and abducting vampire slayers," said Daria.

"Ancient artefacts?" asked Willow.

"The sarcophagus Illyria came in," said Daria.

"And corpse recycling?" asked Willow.

"Jane said her room mate takes her corpses to Wolfram and Hart because they are always buying them. What would they want with a vampire slayer?" said Daria.

"They have a large number of demons on their staff. Our activities since all slayers were activated must have caused them a serious headache," said Willow.

"That means they want to formulate a strategy or make a selective weapon to either kill or weaken your slayers. They a chain, or are they confined to one location?" said Daria.

"They're a chain, their nearest branch is the one in New York," said Willow.

"And the initiative?" asked Daria.

"Long dead, even if active, their interest is in what they call hostile sub terrestrials, demons. They won't give a fuck about slayers," said Faith.

"Okay, Wolfram and Hart it is then," said Daria.

-

It was days like this that made Jane thankful that she didn't need to spend money on food or central heating, or indeed getting that water heater fixed. She suspected the CO level in the apartment would kill most humans in 4 hours if her roommate didn't. She could also use her new purchase in poorly ventilated spaces without danger of asphyxiation.

She had saved up for a new MIG unit (she hated MMA, half the time the electrode sticks, and most the tine, the bead looked really shit when you remove the slag) and had been collecting junk to weld together for ages. Now she was headed home with her welder and the bag of extras over her shoulder.

She had also purchased two spare CO2 bottles, and two extra mild steel spools. It was an overcast day, so she could go out and get this stuff, and … aww fuck!

That girl that attacked her on the tube was headed her way.

She crossed the road to avoid her, the girl gave no outward signs of having recognised her.

-

Tracy crossed the road as soon as the vampire was behind her. She knew the vampire knew her, so she had to pretend not to have recognised until she was ready to sneak up behind her.

She walked quickly, pulling her stake, the vamp wasn't checking her 6, okay, 12 metres … 11 … 10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5 … 4- she accelerated to a run, lifting her stake, and the last thing she saw before conking out was the underside of the girls electrical appliance.

-

Jane put the palm sized mirror back in her pocket and continued on, starting to love being a vampire even more, although she might have a problem getting her money back if the impact had fucked the MIG unit up in any way.

She heard the girl's cell phone ring.

She looked back at the girl.

She should leave the phone to get stolen, serve the girl right for attacking her out of the blue.

But she hesitated.

She sighed and got the phone out of the girl's pocket (watching for any movement whatsoever), noted the caller ID was a Daniel Larch and answered it "Hello?"

"Tracy?" Daniels voice was accented, slightly British.

"Err, she's unconscious and cannot come to the phone right now, can I take a message?"

"Who are you? And how is she unconscious?"

"I'm Jane Lane, and Tracy is unconscious because she, … Tripped or something" said Jane.

"And she is where?"

"5th Ferginson road" said Jane.

"Right, I'll be right there"

-

"Tests say she's ovulating." said John.

"Okay, I'll prepare the equipment, you get her in here." said Winifred.

-

'Tracy' awoke, she sat up, and looked up at Jane, who was leaning against an iron picket fence with her appliance and bag of gas bottles over her shoulder.

Jane tossed her phone to her "Daniel's headed over here, you want to stay conscious, do not follow Me," she then headed off.

She got her mirror out again, and watched Tracy, but Tracy didn't seem to be doing anything other than getting up and looking at her.

-

Andrews's phone rang as they were headed out to New York.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Andrew, I've briefed Tracy on the situation. She's mounted an obbo on the New York branch of Wolfram and Hart, when do you expect to be here?"

"3 hours, 3 tense hours of not knowing when-"

"Right, I'll gather some equipment then." he said before hanging up.

"That was rude," said Andrew, staring at the phone.

"So, they're a long term adversary of your lot, you must know something about them," said Daria.

"Ah yes, the Wolf, the Ram, the Hart, a multidimensional conspiracy to attain power over all life and unlife, like the Borg. They are an organisation that will use any means, mystical and technological, to attain their goals, which is to assimilate through corruption," said Andrew.

"So we can expect heavy resistance to an insertion then?" said Daria.

"Yes, it will be very heavy, like attacking a Jem'hadar outpost, and like Sisko, we will need to come up with a plan so ingenious, and so foolproof, that they will not know about it until it is too late," said Andrew.

"We could use information first," said Daria, preparing to become translator and surmisor for the intelligence Andrew was about to disseminate.

-

Winifred had just enough information on the place to know that Tiffany's escape would be feasible, IF Tiffany hauled ass (and if Tiffany didn't put her in a coma before getting back in her cage, Winifred still had kinks to iron out of the plan). She doubted Tiffany would mind streaking to get out of this place, and Slayer strength would keep her from getting stopped by the cops as she found a safe location to hole up and plan to make contact with the watchers council.

She waited as the cage was wheeled in.

It was opened the same way as it was last time, with the goons pointing tazers at it.

Tiffany slowly stood up, glaring at Winifred, she appeared to up her fury when she saw the birthing stirrups on the sides of the table, Winifred squirmed under Tiffany's threatening glare, picking a spot on the wall behind her to look at.

But Tiffany did as she knew they obviously wanted her to do, she sat on the table (the bottom half of which was removed to improve access) and laid back, placing her legs in the stirrups, exposing and slightly spreading her slit in front of the evil Lawyers.

-

Tiffany focused on something on the ceiling at Winifred went to work, strapping her down, and then rubbing some sort of lubricant into her genitals.

It had taken some effort to force herself to allow herself to be strapped down in this manner, it was obvious they were going to do something to her genitals. She doubted there would be any scientific value to them raping her, but having them poking around inside her genitals, possibly obtaining a tissue sample from there.

They could even be planning to impregnate her with a demon.

Actually that last one makes no sense … But then Tiffany wasn't a scientist, so she didn't know what they wanted to do with her, only that it could end with something scaly and spiny slicing her cervix and vagina into red tagliatelli as it leaves.

'Yeah, thanks brain, that makes me feel much better'

Something slid into her and opened her up, letting air into her vagina, Tiffany ignored it, like she would ignore an itch until she was alone.

Something slid through her cervix into her uterus, making her think once again of the possibility of being impregnated with a demon of some description. She ignored the activity and her fear to the best of her ability, even when she felt air being sucked in around the needle '-nothing's happening, nothing's happening, nothing's happening, nothing's happening-' she thought over and over as the equipment was removed, then something slid in underneath the speculum as it was removed.

'-nothing's happening, nothing's happening, nothing's happening-'

"Okay, we're done for now," said Winifred, as she started undoing the restraints, while Tiffany puzzled over the object that was still in her vagina "If I can't find the ova, we'll give her an oestrogen shot and try again later."

Tiffany's first instinct was to remove the item to see what it was, but if Winifred had placed it there, either for an experiment or to help her, or maybe she just forgot to remove it … no, that last one makes no sense, however absent minded Winifred might appear, but the first two. Either case, she figured she shouldn't remove it in view of the bad guys.

The last of the restraints were undone and Tiffany sat up. She looked at Winifred and the goons for a second, for any hint, but she saw none, so she got back in the cage, electing to wait until she was alone before taking a look at the item.

-

That solved the first problem, but there was still the fact that the goons always closed this big metal door behind them, when they brought Tiffany in.

The door was a sliding door, moved by hand and secured by a single bolt 20cm into the wall electromechanically by a card swipe system.

Now, this was getting into territory where her involvement would become overt. She had to destroy that locking mechanism, and it would have to happen after the cage opened. She needed Tiffany to be out of the cage first, but it would have to happen shortly after that. She couldn't plausibly delay getting Tiffany restrained for the next round of experiments for more than 15 seconds, at the most. That meant she would have to command the device herself, remotely or manually.

It would also help if she could get Tiffany a thermal lance, it wouldn't need too much oxygen, just enough for her to cut through two locks before getting to an emergency exit, but that seemed unworkable. She would have to supply Tiffany with some explosives and delay or remote Fuzes, she could make those, or she could steal them, but either option would be difficult to pull off.

There was another option.

-

Jane finished her creation. It looked like a short mean looking creature with spiny arms and legs, and huge fuck off claws. This wasn't something that had occurred to her to make, it was just to see if the MIG unit worked and break it in.

Her roommate had entered, cooed and commented that the light was pretty (Jane briefly wondered if vampires ever got arc eye) and started dancing around her work as Jane continued to weld.

Her unnamed roommate was now on the hunt, and Jane was preparing to go to work.

She decided to phone Daria first.

-

Daria's cell phone rang.

"Y'ello?"

"Hi Daria, your Mom gave me your cell phone number, said you were helping the FBI in relation to a beaver and butthead," said Jane.

"Yeah, I'm actually headed to New York though, seems Tiffany got captured by Wolfram and Hart," said Daria.

"Great, then I can return to Lawndale," said Jane.

"We're headed over there to get her out," said Daria.

"What? Why? I mean … You got Stockholm syndrome or something?"

"Apparently if she knows you have a soul, she'll leave you alone. They're gonna send a memo to every watcher," said Daria.

"Watcher?" asked Jane.

"The watchers are the slayers command and intelligence network, they pool intelligence and dispense it as needed to the slayers," said Daria.

"Right, New York you say?" asked Jane.

"Yes," said Daria.

"That's actually where I am," said Jane.

-

The guards entered the storage room again.

Tiffany was pretty sure she was the only thing in the room right now for anyone to come and get.

She had done as the instructions had said, and had memorised the map, and was concealing the equipment underneath her leg, as soon as they open the cage, her escape attempt would begin.

Assuming Winifred wasn't just fucking with her.

This was a wonderful time for such a possibility to occur to her, Winifred had given her something that could as easily be a placebo as real, if it didn't work, the escape would end in about a second flat.

Or it could be real and the map fake.

The guards arrived at her location and started wheeling her to the lab.

She didn't know what she would do if Winifred was just playing with her ... except kill Winifred, that would be the obvious priority, but other than that …

She had to trust her, everyone kept saying that Angel's group could no longer be trusted, but Tiffany really had no choice other than to trust Winifred.

-

Winifred had done some analyzing, but she had also been making explosive devices and escape aids.

The explosive devices consisted of one linear shaped charge (using lead instead of copper because lead foil was all she could find) powered by RDX with a thimbleful of benzene, detonated by a packet of lead azide at the back, ignited by an exposed bulb filament, fuzed to a microphone. It would initiate the device when she set off her rape alarm and threw it at it, it had been calibrated to 65Db for 100ms, the alarm would chuck out over 100Db for a lot longer than that. The device would (hopefully, as this was the biggest beaker she could find) sever the bolt that held the door closed.

In addition to the door opener, she had rigged two AP/sugar smoke bombs. These were placed next to the door opener (but would not obstruct the lead stream) where the compression wave would be intense enough to detonate the AP, like ANFO. This would produce a slower wave, so she (and Tiffany) at their distance, shouldn't be in danger from the blast overpressure, and the glass from the door opener would be pulverised to the consistency of minced garlic, so provided neither of them looked at it, shrapnel should not be a problem. The glass from the smoke bombs on the other hand, would be in bigger pieces, but would be directed away from Winifred by the door opener, or slowed down.

Winifred was one of those people who had sent in emails to Norman cook guessing the precise location, composition, and size of explosive charge in each of the blasts in the Gangster tripping video.

As for the rest of Tiffany's escape, she had made 3 thermal lances, these consisted of a nozzle of rolled up magnesium foil stuck down the throat of a 500ml conical flask filled with AP and containing a smaller vessel filled with sulphuric acid. The acid would liberate a large volume of oxygen from the AP, there was also a pyrotechnic mix that would ignite the magnesium, this would create a really hot oxygen jet that could cut concrete if needed, and some lead azide to set everything off, all this activated by a static line going down the magnesium nozzle to the lead azide charge. She would have to instruct Tiffany on how to use these, and do it pretty damn quick.

She had also obtained a respirator, in case they try to sedate her with gas on the way out, and a big syringe filled with adrenaline and stims in case they shot tranq darts at her.

As for her own survival … Winifred shrugged, she would be located and sucked out of this dimension by the SPs, and go through the same shit Lindsey went through.

She hadn't gone through anything like that, not on Pylea, not when Illyria had her. She could barely hold on when Illyria had her, and what she was about to endure was going to be something like a thousand times worse, lasting possibly infinity.

She was just going to have to avoid thinking about it until it was too late, that's all she was going to have to do, and hope anyone looking for her was bright enough to figure out what she would have done to enable them to locate her.

The door opened and the cage was wheeled in.

"We're going to be using the MRI now, I want to get a picture of how her muscles work, what they consume," said Winifred.

They nodded and closed the door.

Winifred got the rape alarm ready, she figured she might have to throw it at the charge to get it close enough. She watched out for any sign that they were reading any tells she might have, remaining still, focusing on looking calm as the goons prepared to open the cage.

Winifred thought about what would happen if the fuze failed, it would be obvious she was up to something, they wouldn't know what, just that she was acting bizarrely, at the least, they might think she was creating a diversion for Tiffany.

Would that give her the freedom to manually cook off the detonating charge with that book of matches in her pocket?

The lid was unlocked and pulled open.

Winifred pulled the alarm from her pocket, the static line wrapped around her middle finger, she shot put it towards the beakers and dropped to the floor as she felt the line pull on her finger.

The noise filled the air, and suddenly there was a flash and a large quantity of smoke. Winifred felt her skeleton jar at the same time, she also noticed the floor now looked suspiciously like the ceiling and felt a smooth flat surface sliding against her back, and realised she had been knocked over by the blast. She slid to a stop near the MRI, and got up.

The alarm smashed into the wall underneath the observation window, having been chucked over there by the compression wave, which had also detonated the smoke charges. She ran to the cage which had been shielded from the blast by the table in the middle of the room. The guards had been slammed against the wall, but they had quickly recovered.

Tiffany jumped out of her cage. She couldn't propel it into one of the goons because they were within 120° of each other, on the latch side of the cage, the lid would obstruct her trajectory. She had to engage them directly, the first one went down as Tiffany smacked him in the chest, then in his face.

The second guy shot his tazer at her, but found it was not doing anything, even though he clearly remembered checking the batteries. Tiffany grabbed him and shoved his face into her knee.

"This way Tiffany," said Winifred, waving her into the smoke, and leading her to the cupboard near the door, she grabbed the respirator saying "put this on."

As Tiffany complied, she grabbed the syringe "this is a stimulant: They hit you with a dart, take it," she suddenly realised she hadn't thought about how she was supposed to carry it and fight, she had tied a ribbon around the thermal lances which would act as a sling, but had done nothing for the syringe.

She took off her lab coat and handed it to Tiffany, putting the syringe on the pocket, she then grabbed the thermal lances "these will cut through steel, pull the string, press the nozzle against the door. Sorry I don't have a visor for you, you'll just have to look out the corner of your eye or something," she then pushed at the door, it moved "you memorised the map I gave you?"

"Yes," said Tiffany as she got the lab coat on and grabbed the thermal lances.

"Good, get moving," she said.

"And you?" asked Tiffany.

"I'm on it, just go," said Winifred.

"Right, thanks," Tiffany said, before running off.

Winifred decided to at least attempt to escape, but suddenly notices a swirling light overhead.

She sat back down and shrugged saying "ah, I'm boned."

-

Andrews's phone rang "hello?"

"Danny here, Tracy just called, it seems an Asian girl in nothing but a lab coat and a Respirator just broke out of Wolfram and Hart. She's running at the kind of speed that suggests enhanced strength. It might be your missing slayer."

"Thanks," said Andrew, he then told the others what had just happened.

They were well into New York now, maybe they wouldn't have to go up against the forces of Wolfram and Hart.

-

Tiffany removed the respirator and stuffed it into one of the lab coat pockets.

The coat wasn't really done up, it was flying behind her as she ran along the streets of wherever the fuck this was, trying to get as much distance as possible between her and the evil law firm.

She ducked into an alley and scaled a drainpipe to the roof of a block of apartments, she then started leaping from roof to roof, and finally stopped on the 24th roof.

She ripped the roof access door off its hinges and entered the building, setting it against the frame as she entered. She then picked the tazer darts out of her skin and closed the lab coat around her, considering her next move.

Fred had really come through for her, she had provided a skin ointment that made the first 3 mm of skin highly conductive (oddly enough, the nervous system in the affected skin still functioned), creating a faraday birthday suit, then she had to use one of those flasks to cut a door. She hadn't needed the stimulants, and they hadn't attempted to use any kind of gaseous sedative, but it was still good to be prepared.

She had to get into contact with the watchers council. She had memorised the number this time. She figured it was a good idea after last time, but she hadn't figured on having to use it so soon.

She headed down stairs, and found a pay phone in the lobby. She looked around, and broke the coin store, she caught the quarters as they fell from the machine, and piled them on top of the phone, she then dialled the number.

-

They arrived at Tracy's apartment, and knocked. The man that answered the door asked who they were.

"I'm Andrew, this is Faith, Willow, and Daria," said Andrew.

"Okay, Tracy will be along soon, she lost sight of Tiffany about an hour ago," said Daniel.

They all entered the apartment.

Andrews's phone rang again, it was Giles.

"Hello?"

"Andrew, I just got a call from Tiffany."

-

Tiffany waited in the Lobby as instructed. Faith and Willow entered the building, and Tiffany got up to greet them.

"You naked under that lab coat?" asked Faith.

"As a Jaybird … Or indeed, any bird," said Tiffany.

"How did you get out?" asked Willow.

"Fred helped me," said Tiffany.

"Fred was there?" asked Faith.

"Yeah, I asked her how she was getting out, said she was on it, didn't really believe her, but I wasn't about to throw her attempt to help me in her face," said Tiffany.

Willow and Faith looked sad and angry respectively.

"Is there any chance she's alive?" asked Tiffany.

Willow said "yes," the same instant Faith said "No,", they looked at each other.

"There's no way they'd let her off that easy, she's probably in a hell dimension of some kind," said Willow.

"Okay, how do we get there?" asked Tiffany.

"I don't know, we need to return to base first, maybe Tracy will lend you some clothes," said Faith.

They headed out.

-

Daniel called Tracy again.

There was no answer again.

He hung up again.

"She's never this late, I think she's been captured," he said.

Andrews's phone rang "it's Faith," he said, he then answered it.

"Hello."

"Andrew, we got Tiffany and are returning to base. We got a problem though, call the council and find out what you can about hell dimensions, the ones Wolfram and Hart are known to rule in particular," said Faith.

"Faith, why? What are we-" he was cut off "Hello? … everyone's always doing that, why do they keep doing that?"

-

Faith knocked on the door, and Daniel answered, he let them in.

"I don't suppose any of you saw Tracy on the way in, did you?" he asked.

"No, I guess we got two people to extract from hell," said Faith.

Andrew was sat at Daniels computer going through all the information Giles had sent.

"Yeah, but which hell do we look in first?" asked Andrew.

"How many hell dimensions can there be?" asked Faith.

"Infinity," answered Daria and Willow at the same time.

They looked at each other.

"Okay, can we at least make the number finite?" asked Faith.

"Without another Wolfram and Hart sleeper, I doubt it," said Willow.

"I take it Fred's the only one?" asked Daria.

"Well, not exactly, there's Angel, Gunn, Lorne, Wesley, and Spike, they run the Los Angeles branch," said Willow.

"Okay, so maybe one of them could be of use," said Daria.

"We don't exactly trust them since they started working for Wolfram and Hart," said Andrew.

"Well, if they are our best chance of getting him out of the hell dimension, then surely they're worth a call," said Daria.

"Him?" asked Willow, Daria looked at her funny as Willow said "There's only Fred … Oh, Fred's short for Winifred."

"Ah," said Daria.

"And I guess Daria's right, if we're going to find out how to get them out, we're going to have to talk to them," said Willow.

Daniels phone rang, he looked at it "Hey, it's Tracy," he said, he then answered it "Tracy, where are you?"

"No, it's me again, Tracy needs a lift again," said that girl Tracy had described.

-

When Jane had gotten back from work, she found her roommate and two vampires with crossbow pistols in the apartment with Tracy tied up, being held in the armchair by her room mate.

Her roommate had said "Jane, Jane, Jane, if you wish to remain in your present form, you will have to show some sign that you are one of us."

Jane said "Alright," before pulling up her shorts, walking forward, then dropping while drawing her Mac 10, she fired a burst at each vamp. They dropped their weapons and collapsed, same with her roommate.

She then entered her room, picked up her MIG unit, the spare bottles and wire spools, her sculpture, and headed out, she picked up the slayer, and headed out, saying "getting sick of this place anyway."

After taking the lift to the ground floor and getting to the sidewalk, she sat the slayer on the ground and cut the ropes on her hands, she then said "you can cut the rest of the ropes yourself," before picking up her stuff again and walking off, using her palm sized mirror to watch the slayer again.

She got 4 metres away before she noticed the slayer was not moving. She stopped and turned to her, then she returned. The slayer looked tired, and unusually pink …

-

"Since me and my roommate were vampires, faulty gas appliances were never a threat to us. And the place goes through so many landlords in a month, none of them can be expected to get them looked at anyway," said Jane as Faith and Daniel drove them back to base.

"They'll be mad when they wake up," said Daniel.

"They seemed pretty dead when I left them," said Jane.

"Vampires don't die from gunshot wounds, it's stakes, headotomy, or incineration by fire, holy water, sunlight, or prolonged contact with a religious symbol," said Faith.

"We're bullet proof? Cool, almost offsets the addition of the holy water cliché," said Jane.

"Heyyyyy, I knowwwww youuuuu," slurred Tracy, he then turned to Daniel and said "sheeeees, Aaaa, Vampirrrre."

Daniel said "yes, we know, but she's a good vampire, she has a soul."

"Oooohhh, okayyyyyyy," Tracy smiled and fell asleep on Jane's shoulder.

"How did you get the drop on her anyway?" asked Faith.

"A mirror," said Jane, producing her palm sized mirror "looked behind me, through me, I hear you're looking for Tiffany, how's that going?" asked Jane.

"We found her, now we're looking for Fred, that's short for Winifred, by the way, just so there's no confusion later," said Faith.

"Okay, where was Fred last seen?" asked Jane.

"Wolfram and Hart, we think she's in some sort of hell dimension, and we have no idea where to start looking," said Faith.

"Isn't Lorne from Wolfram and Hart?" asked Jane.

"Yes, … Why?" asked Willow.

-

"You, wish to enter the competition?" asked Angela.

"Yes, I wish to enter the competition," said Daria.

"Okay, and what will you be singing?" asked Angela.

"Voices," said Daria.

"Oh good, I love that song," said Angela.

'Probably not the Disturbed version,' thought Daria, not giving any tells what so ever.

-

The first round of API2 was underway within 24 hours, Daria was one of the first up, and Lorne was on the judge's panel.

"First up is Daria, with 'voices'," said the presenter.

The music started, this worried Angela because that was not the song she thought Daria meant.

"SOOOOO … … ARE-YOU-BREATHING? … … SOOOOO … … ARE-YOU-BREATHING? … … NO! NO! … … ARE-YOU-BREATHING? … … SOOOO … … ARE-YOU-BREATHING? ... … NO!"

Angela was a little closer to shitting herself now.

"WAKE UP ARE YOU ALIVE, WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME? I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT SOME FREAKY SHIT NOW, SOME, ONE IS GONNA DIE WHEN YOU LISTEN TO ME, LET-THE-LIVING-DIE-LET-THE-LIVING-DIE, SAY! WAKE UP ARE YOU ALIVE, WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME? I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT SOME FREAKY SHIT NOW, SOME, ONE IS GONNA DIE WHEN YOU LISTEN TO ME, LET-THE-LIVING-DIE-LET-THE-LIVING-DIE, SAY! ARE YOU, BREA-THING NOWWW? DO THE WICKED SEE YOU-" the music cut out "-YOU STILL BREA-THING, YOOU'RE Ma-king meee … knowwwn … … HELLO? LET'S HAVE THE MUSIC BACK? … "

The presenter walked onto the set and said "Miss Morgendorffer, this is on live television, you can not use such lyrics, DIDN'T YOU READ THE FUCKING RULES?"

Daria took on this confused look and asked "There were rules?"

-

Andrews's cell phone rang "Hello?"

"Hi, Lorne here, I just read a thought that included your phone number, and instructions to use a payphone, did your messenger have to destroy the show?"

"We kind of had to pull a Paris in Voyager 2:16 there," said Andrew.

"Err … what?" asked Lorne.

"She needed a plausible reason to participate, the only reason that would work would have been to sabotage the show," said Andrew.

"I see … She thought something about Fred being in hell?" he said.

"Yeah, Fred sprung a slayer she had been told to dissect, and we think she was sent to a hell dimension, but we have absolutely no idea where to start looking," said Andrew.

"Where are you?" asked Lorne.

-

There was a knock, Daniel got up and went to the door.

"Andrew, and I'm guessing Lorne?"

They entered.

Lorne took in the group.

"How'd you get your mom to let you go?" he asked.

"Didn't," said Daria.

-

Helen kept pacing up ad down, using two or three word sentences in an attempt to express her rage at her eldest daughter sat on the sofa in front of her.

First day back, no incident. Second day, absent. Third day back, major public embarrassment on national television that Lawndale will never recover from, and, would you believe it, another suspension.

-

"Willow built me another me. I went to the toilet, robo me came out, just hope robo me can fill me in on everything that transpires over the next couple of days," said Daria.

"Okay, I had Gunn sing to me, and I got the most likely hell dimensions with here. Plus, he does a very good 'Modern major general'," he pulled a pocket book.

"Better than Don. S. Davis?" asked Andrew.

"What are we likely to encounter going in?" asked Daria.

"Should we even be bringing her?" asked Daniel.

"She might be helpful," said Willow.

"We arm her, that's another combatant on our team," said Jane.

"And her combat experience?" asked Daniel.

"Well, I once saved the world from a really strong, time slowing, dimension hopping demon god king that was about to give earth a Mimas makeover," said Daria.

Everyone looked at her in bewilderment.

"One of Saturn's moons, the one that looks like the death star, big dent in its side," said Daria.

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"That's a point, Gunn said something about heavy resistance when they tried to remove Lindsey from one of the holding dimensions," said Lorne.

"I suppose if we use your account we'll end up sending another friendly to hell," said Daria.

"How did you know about the trade?" asked Lorne.

"Excuse me? … I meant in reprisal for interfering with their reprisal, what trade?" asked Daria.

"We found Knox had planned to get Fred infected with Illyria, got us a little annoyed, so when we decided we needed to talk to Lindsey, we decided to replace him with Knox," said Lorne.

"Knox, that asshole who was worshiping Illyria while she was torturing me? It is a really nasty hell he got left in, right?" asked Daria.

"It enabled Angel, Spike and Gunn to get out alive, they started shooting at them when they tried to leave," said Lorne.

"Spike? You know, my roommate was comparing me to someone named Spike," said Jane.

"Your roommate, insane girl with black hair and a London accent?" asked Willow.

"Yeah," said Jane.

"That's Drusilla," said Willow.

"And that's a vampire without a soul," said Jane.

"And without her marbles," said Faith.

"We should return to topic now," said Daniel.

"Seconded, okay, that case we either need another person to exchange, or superior firepower," said Daria.

"I don't find the Idea of sending a person to their doom that agreeable," said Willow.

"Okay, Jane, where did you get your submachine gun?" asked Tracy.

"Some guy with a van who stops by behind a KFC on 12th street every other week, I'd have to take you to him," said Jane.

"We're going to want at least two belt fed machineguns, assault rifles all round, handguns too, preferably gas operated," said Daria.

"That's going to get expensive," said Jane.

"Okay, see what you can get, also, we'll need a suitable vehicle, at least 6mm carbon steel," said Daria.

"There are some things that guns don't work on," said Faith.

"But it'll take them out of the fight while we leave," said Jane.

"But we just about never use guns," said Willow.

"Well, you do now," said Daria, to Willow and Faiths look, Daria said "Just think of them as noisy, self loading crossbows that shoot shorter arrows at a faster rate and velocity,"

"Fine," Faith and Willow said, then Faith said "We might need a flamethrower,"

"Re-he-he-heallly?" asked Jane.

"Jane?" asked Daria, a little worried.

"See if you can find me a power spray, a portable generator, around 2 square metres of mild steel, 5 metres of 25 mill by 25 mill angle iron, an angle grinder, a drill with HSS bits, some garden hose, and around 16 litres of gasoline," said Jane, creative juices in overload.

"Okay, let's get out there," said Andrew.

-

They reached the car perk, when they saw Illyria emerge from behind one of the cars.

Willow, her eyes going black, her hair flaring, and arcing from her fingers, walked over to the car shouting "YOU RAT BITCH! I AM SO GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"

Illyria stayed where she was, not certain she could resist Willow's magics now she no longer had her powers "Willow Rosenberg, that will cause a disturbance."

"I DON'T CARE!" Willow said, conjuring a fireball in her hand.

"I thought you were trying to kill Me," said Illyria.

"I AM NOW!" shouted Willow.

"Willow, calm down," said Daria.

"WHY SHOULD I? ILLYRIA TORTURED ME!"

"She did me too, Willow, but if we end up having to evade the police, it'll prolong Fred's stay in that hell dimension," said Daria.

Willow looked between Daria and Illyria, then she reabsorbed her fireball.

"Illyria, just a thought, can you look like anyone other than yourself and Stacy?" asked Daria.

Illyria nodded and took on the appearance of Willow.

"Okay, can you look like a police officer?"

Illyria took on the appearance of a uniformed police officer.

"Right then, that gives us our armoured vehicle and our guns, how much do power sprays and sheets and extrusions of mild steel go for these days?"

-

There was a knock on Daria's door.

"The room you are trying to access is temporarily disconnected, please try again at another time."

Quinn entered and said "Daria, did you have to do that?"

"Of course I did, it's in my program," said Daria.

"DARIA, THIS ISN'T FUNNY, YOU DESTROYED THIS TOWN'S POPULARITY WITH THAT STUNT OF YOURS, I DIDN'T EVEN GET A CHANCE TO DO MY ROUTINE!"

"Your routine is full of bugs and viruses," said Daria.

Quinn stomped out slamming the door after her.

-

"HEY, WHY HAVE WE STOPPED?" asked one of the SWAT team members.

"That's Faith Lehane in my wing mirror, she's a wanted felon," said Sergeant Vincent Higgens.

"Right," they got out the back and surrounded Faith.

Then they saw some red head girl with black eyeballs chanting something, and suddenly they were all surrounded in a mist.

Faith put on the respirator Tiffany had kept.

Higgins came out the back and reverted to Illyria, and started helping Faith and Willow strip the officers of their weapons.

Once they had them on board, they were off.

-

The alley was the only place they had to work on their flamethrower, since the landlord took one look at the armloads of gasoline cans and said "Uh-uh, no way, you are not bringing THAT into the building," so Jane, Daria, and the two watchers set up there.

Jane's flamethrower was just about complete.

She placed the last pipe on the base of the left fuel tank and said looked away saying "Eyes," before tacking it on.

She then pulled her visor down and completed the weld.

The device looked a lot more menacing than Daria would have expected, the generator was at the top of the pack, the power spray was at the bottom, the 8L fuel stores on the sides, a chef's blowtorch on the flame holder that replaced the nozzle that would have otherwise created a flat aerosol.

Jane hooked up the last hosepipe to the tank and tightened the clip around it.

She then turned off the generator and worked on the wiring to the power spray, letting the tank cool before she even thought about charging.

"Jesus, that looks heavy," said Daria.

"Yes indeedy," Jane said, she started cocooning the terminals in PVC tape, then she said "we're ready to give it a go now," said Jane.

Tracy appeared in the alley way and said "Illyria's here,"

"RIGHT HANG ON," said Jane, as she and Daria charged the flamethrower.

They then picked up all their equipment (Jane put the flamethrower on her back) and headed to the front of the alley, Jane activated the generator, and turned on the power spray, she turned back to the Alley, activating the torch, she squeezed the trigger, waiting for the air to leave, then an enormous flame shot out into the alley, the gasoline formed a large puddle of fire 25 metres into the alley.

"Groovy," said Jane.

Jane, Daria, and Tracy went to the APC, while the watchers carried the tools into Daniels apartment.

-

Once they were on board the APC, they drove off.

"Okay, a dozen M4s, ditto MP5s, grenade launchers with CS rounds, and two minimis. Looks like we're off to a good start," said Jane.

"Dibs on the minimi," said Tracy, grabbing one of the machine guns, cocking it, and accidentally poking the muzzle in the back of Illyria's head, causing Illyria to look back at Tracy, Tracy lifted the barrel, looking a little embarrassed, and shrugged "sorry,"

"So how are we crossing dimensions then?" asked Daria as she examined her M4.

"Oh, there's a tunnel nearby that will take us straight to it," said Lorne.

"And Fred," asked Daria.

"I'll do a locator spell," said Willow.

"Okay then, to hell with us," said Daria.

-

When they arrived in the hell dimension, they drove around in search of the correct house.

"Damn it, my locator spell's not working," said Willow.

"That case, we keep driving until we find her," said Daria.

"That could take ages," said Willow.

"Yeah … did Fred know what she was getting into?" asked Daria.

"Yeah," replied Lorne.

"Okay, Tiffany, that lab, did you see anything marked radioactive?" asked Daria.

"No, I was kind of distracted by the being in pain, and being restrained tit-ass naked in front of the forces of evil," replied Tiffany.

Daria started looking around the APC and found what she was looking for.

"That won't be very good through terrain," Willow said.

"So we'll keep driving," said Daria, she popped the hatch and poked the Geiger counter through, she turned the sensitivity up to maximum.

-

After a while, they started to get tired of this.

"We need to try this from the air," said Jane.

"Any flying spells Willow?" asked Daria.

"There are, but in this dimension, wonkiness can be assured," said Willow.

"Illyria, you limited to human forms, or can you turn into a condor or something?" asked Daria.

"I am limited to human forms only," said Illyria.

"What about your clothes?" asked Daria.

Illyria tilted her head in thought.

-

Illyria was tied to the roof of the APC now, with around 50m of slack, the clothes she had conjured up were a harness and a parawing.

She swept the terrain with the Geiger counter (which was taped to the other minimi, which she wielded like a Mac 10), its sensitivity turned to maximum.

Illyria felt suspicious that Daria had warmed to her after the incident, but she needed a new Qwa'ha Xahn.

She was obviously useful to them, and Daria had promised to assist her in learning to live in this world, but she had to be at least a little paranoid, to discount the possibility that she would be dumped here by these people would be extremely foolish.

She started getting some clocks from the Geiger counter.

"Spike, two o'clock, turn left."

She dived a little, turning left in anticipation of the turn.

"Turn right,"

Illyria was already crossing over the road, she maintained her course, she climbed back to maximum altitude just outside the roads curve.

"Ten houses to target, target will be on your right,"

-

In the APC Jane was looking out through one of the gun ports "looks awfully bright out there,"

"Sunlight's not a problem for vamps in this dimension," said Lorne.

Jane walked up to the hatch and stuck her hand out "cool," she started the generator and everyone got ready to move.

"Five houses," said Illyria.

Illyria counted off each one, Willow got another Geiger counter and Daria turned off the road, watching where Willow was pointing it, she turned so that the radiation source was directly behind them.

"RIGHT! LET'S GO!" shouted Willow.

Jane climbed onto the roof of the APC, Tracy joined her with her minimi. Tiffany, Willow, and Faith ran into the house, Lorne stayed behind with Daria.

-

Willow took point, she and the slayers were not used to carrying firearms, they just thought of them, as Daria had suggested, as noisy self loading crossbows.

They saw a man and a boy, Lorne mentioned that they would be armed, and would join the fight, so they didn't take their eyes off them. Willow held the Geiger counter next to the forearm of the M4.

The radiation source was in the basement, she opened the door, and found Winifred coming up the stairs with a light bulb, Winifred froze at the sight of Willow.

She pocketed the Geiger counter and pulled Winifred out of the basement by her shirt collar, Winifred got on her hands and knees as a result of the force vector, and Willow started feeling for the necklace behind Winifred's neck.

She removed it.

As expected, the kid and the man pulled submachine guns (Uzis, specifically), Faith wasted them, Willow dropped the talisman and pulled Winifred to her feet "ALRIGHT, WE'RE OUTTA HERE!"

They emerged from the house to see Jane and Tracy firing their weapons at various bandits (armed men in an ice cream van and on two ride on lawnmowers )

They were back on board.

"LET'S GO!" shouted Willow.

"HANG ON" shouted Daria to Jane and Tracy as she floored it.

-

From her perspective, Illyria watched for additional bandits, Jane and Tracy were watching the 12 O'clock position.

-

"I'm remembering … I'm … I'm Fred Burkle," Winifred said, as she remembered who she was, and what was happening.

"You alright Freddykins?" asked Lorne.

"No, not really, my body just kept going into that basement and that demon kept cutting my heart out, there was this pile of hearts next to the table," said Winifred.

"They could make a lot of money on the medical black market," said Daria.

"I would SO love to have a go at that demon with a chainsaw, although sticking those pears up his ass would have that poetic justice element factor," said Winifred, somewhat manic.

"Daria, we have a problem," said Illyria.

"Or maybe that one where you hang the guy upside down and saw him in half," mused Winifred.

Daria grabbed her Radio "I'm listening."

"I can not see the tunnel we came through," reported Illyria.

Daria kept driving, the road eventually turned away from the cliff face.

"Okay, looks like we need to select someone to wear that talisman," said Daria.

A deathly silence descended upon them as Daria started back to the house "Illyria, we're headed back to the house,"

"Acknowledged," replied Illyria.

"Is that the same Illyria that-" started Winifred.

Everyone said "Yes."

"Hey, can we-" started Winifred.

Everyone said "No."

"Probably should have brought Drusilla, she'd probably enjoy it," said Jane.

"Or Lilah 'Career minion' Morgan," said Winifred, still in a manic state of sadistic rage.

"There's a fire in the basement of the house, we exit through that," said Lorne.

-

They shot and rammed a large number of vehicles on their way back, then they had to fight their way back in, Illyria strafed the middle of the bad guy queue as she landed, then she resumed her normal appearance, assisting Tracy and Jane in holding back the bad guys as the others abandoned the APC, Daria and Lorne included.

They had to shoot replacement family units, and Jane set the structure on fire behind them, Daria grabbed the talisman asking "is this it?"

Willow nodded.

"Okay, basement now everyone," said Daria.

They all entered the basement, Jane taking tail, as she ignited the house behind them.

-

Faith and Tiffany kept batting this big demon with this chain mail mask between them, Winifred was warming a poker in the fire, saying "Don't knock him out, it's almost up to temperature."

"Okay, we got about 5 minutes before the house is too weak to not collapse on our asses," said Daria.

"Okay, new plan," said Winifred, leaving the poker and grabbing a cats paw off the wall, walking over to where Faith and Tiffany were playing pass the demon.

"I guess one of us stays," said Tiffany.

"That would make the trip a touch pointless, don't you think?" said Daria.

Illyria took the talisman from Daria and walked over to where Faith and Tiffany were batting the demon between them, pushing Winifred out of the way, she grabbed the demon and placed the talisman around his neck.

The demon walked to the table.

The door to the furnace opened.

Illyria walked off through it.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" asked Daria.

"Because you're not as smart as you think you are," said Jane, as Lorne and Willow walked through the fire.

"Great, I really am in hell," said Daria.

Jane and the slayers walked through the fire.

Winifred hung back, torture device still in hand, saying "Wait, I wanna see him tear his own heart out."

Daria grabbed Winifred and pulled her with them.

-

They all appeared in an underground car park, they looked around.

"Where are we now?" asked Daria.

Suddenly two columns of goons in SAS gear ran in through a door off to the side, they took positions behind the cars, aiming MP5s at the group, they had tone before any of them could think to raise their M4s, they did halfway though.

"IT'S OKAY, THEY'RE WITH ME," shouted Lorne.

The goons stood up lowering their weapons, Daria, Tiffany, and faith lowered their M4s, and Jane her flamethrower, Tracy and Illyria hadn't brought their machineguns to bear.

"We're in the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart," said Lorne.

"Okay, that case we need to get going," said Daria, now feeling just a LOT wary.

Two men entered, one had black hair, wearing a purple shirt, black trousers, a black trench coat, and the other was lightly built, dark brown hair, wearing Jeans and a black jumper, both had serious looks.

Winifred went to hug the thinner guy, who was looking at the cat's paw Winifred still held, she hugged Him, and he relaxed into it, as the other guy told the goons to take a break.

Daria looked at him and said "And for those of us who just materialised here for the first time, you are … ?"

"I'm Angel, You?"

"Daria Morgendorffer … And him?" she asked, pointing at the man Winifred was hugging.

"Wesley Pryce," said Angel.

"Okay … " Daria looked around for cameras, then mouthed "bugs," to Willow.

Willow chanted something, then said "clear."

Daria turned back to angel and said "I understand you're one of the good guys."

"Yes, trying to bring down the beast from within," said Angel, sounding like he was having trouble convincing himself, that prompted a snort from Willow.

"Tiffany Blum Deckler, a Slayer, was abducted by the New York branch of Wolfram and Hart, then Fred was interred in a hell dimension for assisting in her escape. Can you help us in any way?" asked Daria.

"Fred should be safe now, we extracted Lindsey a while back, they didn't come after him, as for Tiffany, I suspect her capture was for the purpose of attempting to corrupt Fred, if that was the case, Tiffany should be safe," said Angel.

"Any advice on evading roving bands of Wolfram and Hart capture teams in case that isn't the case?" asked Daria.

"Actually, yes," said Angel.

Then they heard the lift doors open, they waited to see who it was.

Marcus Hamilton entered.

"Ahh, Miss Morgendorffer, I should have figured it'd be you."

"Would anyone miss this guy if I shot him?" asked Daria.

"'fraid we sort of need him alive," replied Angel before asking "Marcus, what do you want?"

"The involvement of Lorne in the destruction rained on the holding dimension means it's your budget the damages are coming from, oh, and you have new customers up stairs, the Reillys have a mystery for you," said Marcus.

"I'm on it," said Wesley, heading upstairs with Fred.

"And I made Lorne come," said Daria.

"Oh, yeah, this Daria, she was real menacing, scared the crap out of me, what could I do?" added Lorne.

"What about me? Can I return home without having to look out for your lot?" asked Tiffany.

"Oh, we already know there's no way to create a poison that only targets slayers, the Senior partners were testing Fred's loyalty, which has come up questionable," said Marcus.

"Uh-huh," said Angel.

"This is something you need to think about if you wish to continue your heroics, Angel, this is a business, not the bat cave," Marcus then left.

"I tell you what, I still like him better than Eve," said Lorne.

"That's because he didn't lift you by your throat and mug you," said Daria, she then turned to Angel and said "you sure I can't shoot him?"

-

In Wolfram and Harts cafeteria, Daria, Willow, Illyria and the slayers grabbed some lunch.

Tracy called Daniel.

"Tracy, or Jane, how did it go?"

Tracy chuckled and said "Mission successful, now we just got to figure out how to return to base, we're in LA, We're with Angel's group, he says we're safe right now."

"You're in Wolfram and Hart?" asked Daniel.

"Yeah, Angel reckons that Fred was the real target and Tiffany was just a vehicle, and that Marcus Hamilton guy, apparent liaison to the senior partners, treated Angel's 'heroics' like some sort of hobby," said Tracy.

"Jesus, that's strange," said Daniel.

"Yeah, the whole organisation is a total mind fuck, I can understand violence, scientific research into the enemy, all those things, but what I don't understand is letting the enemy work like this. I would have thought either the senior partners would have tried to express tighter control on Angel's crew, or Angel would be more active in his sabotage."

"That's the legal theatre for you," said Daniel.

"Yeah, anyway, be with you soon, I hope," she hung up.

Illyria headed out of the cafeteria.

"Where's she going?" asked Daria.

"Should one of us follow?" asked Jane.

"No, she'll drag us down with her if she's out to cause trouble," said Faith.

-

Harmony looked up from her desk and saw the demon girl Fred had described walking to Angel's office.

"EXCUSE ME, YOU CAN'T GO THERE," she said.

The demon girl walked up to her and said "You presume to restrict MY movements, half-breed?"

Angel and Marcus then emerged from the office, Marcus walked off, Angel noticed Illyria at Harmony's desk.

"Illyria, are you looking for someone?" he asked.

"We need to talk," she said, walking into his office.

-

"You are infiltrating the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart in order to destroy their organisation," stated Illyria.

Angel shrugged and said "Pretty much."

"Then you will need my help," stated Illyria.

"How can you help?" asked Angel.

"Before I was interred in the deeper well, I ruled a vast empire spanning many worlds, and many dimensions. I have great experience you could not imagine, and could teach you what you need to know to destroy them," said Illyria.

"The world … worlds, have changed a lot since your time, what can you teach me?" asked Angel.

"For a start, some basic military doctrine. You'll never win like this," she said.

"Like what?" asked Angel.

"You are trapped in the web of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. The senior partners as you know them, they laugh at you, make you perform the tasks they lay out for you, dropping treats such as the illusion of progress," said Illyria.

"Uh-huh, and your advice?" asked Angel.

"Do you want to win?" asked Illyria.

"Illyria, of course I want to win, that's why I'm here, that's why I'm working to bring down the beast from within," said Angel.

"You don't seem to want to win badly enough, you are a slave to an insane construct. You are moral, a true ruler is as moral as a hurricane, empty, but for the voice of his gale. You have so much power around you, yet you quibble at it's price. If you wish to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition," said Illyria.

"Serve no master but your ambition?" asked Angel.

"Yes, get the power you need, and use it. Cause as much damage as you can. I also wish to destroy the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, that is why I participated in the operation to free your minion. It was a chance to cause some damage to the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, and to examine potential allies against them," said Illyria.

"Thank you, Illyria, I will consider your advice," said Angel.

"You had better, I want to see the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, and their empire burn to the ground," said Illyria as she got up and left.

-

Daria had left the cafeteria in search of Illyria, she went over to the reception desk "excuse me, Harmony, have you seen-" she then saw Illyria emerge from the office off to the left of the desk "oh, never mind, found her." Daria then went to meet Illyria "thought I'd better go find you, Tiffany has been in contact with Giles. He's going to cover our air fare to Lawndale," said Daria.

"I will not be joining you, I can infiltrate any organisation, that should include airlines," said Illyria.

"Okay then, I am wondering if you have attempted to maintain the illusion that Stacy is alive to her parents," said Daria.

"That required little effort, in fact, when I demonstrated my true form to them, they dismissed it as a figment of their imagination," said Illyria.

"Right, they will find your absence alarming though," said Daria.

"Their alarm is immaterial," said Illyria.

"Okay, well, good luck then," said Daria.

"Thank you," said Illyria.

-

A few weeks later, Daria received a visitor.

It was Marcus Hamilton.

"Do you remember what I said about interfering with Wolfram and Hart affairs?"

"Yes," replied Daria.

"Now you've gotten yourself arrested over the theft of the SWAT APC you left in the holding dimension, which I dutifully returned to the New York police department. It was quite a surprise to find your prints were already on AFIS. However, there is a way Wolfram and Hart can see their way round to getting you out of here," said Marcus.

"That's fascinating, but Heather and I have really fallen in love, it would just ruin our relationship so much if one got out and the other didn't," said Daria.

"Okay, well, thank you for your time, Miss Morgendorffer." Marcus left the room, and the guards entered to take Daria back to her cell.

-

"Are you sure you don't want to get some lunch?" asked Heather.

"I am certain," said Daria.

"Okay, then, catch you later," she said.

After she was gone, Daria opened a panel in her side and plugged it into one of the cells power outlets, as the other Daria had instructed, she was careful to hide the fact she was a robot.

-

Giles entered the library and said "Ah, there you are."

"Damn, you found me," replied Daria, she then said "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I was wondering if you feel up to taking on some field work?" he asked.

"Well, I could use a little more time to prepare, what were you thinking of?" asked Daria.

"Tiffany is getting frustrated with Andrew. I'm about to send him on vacation to Italy. You seem to have a better feel for the job than Andrew does, you are near enough qualified now," said Giles.

"Would I be temping until Andrew gets those people skills he's in desperate need of? … Wait, that is a permanent position," said Daria.

"I could replace you in a couple of weeks if it proves too much," said Giles.

"Well, I am looking forward to seeing my family again, and catching up with them … Oh wait, they think I'm in jail," said Daria.

"So?" asked Giles.

"Okay, I'll do it, I'll need a new identity though," said Daria.

-

End.


	3. Living Dead Girls 3: Baptism Of Fire

Constraints: follows 'Living Dead Girls 2: Corporate Seizure'

Synopsis: Daria returns to Lawndale to watch Tiffany, and an old former friend of Willows also shows her face.

Living Dead Girls 3: Baptism Of Fire.

Content warning: Violence.

Legal: Daria belongs to MTV, Angel and Buffy belongs to Mutant enemy, and there's a reference to 'Drop The Dead Donkey' in there too. Oh, and there are lyrics from a Rob Zombie song in there too. I also got help from Thea Zara, Dervish, and Nick Calcagni on this.

-

"DARIA? I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN PRISON!" shrieked Angela.

"Daria? Who's this Daria?" asked the woman.

She looked like Daria. Exact same hair colour, exact same glasses. But she was dressed in grey trousers, a pink fuzzy jumper, and her hair was in a braided ponytail. Also her voice had a wider bandwidth.

Angela looked at her trying to work it out in her mind. The woman stared back in puzzlement.

"Is this a test? Are you playing the role of a disruptive library patron?" asked the woman.

"Library?" asked Angela.

"Yeah, the place I'm applying for management of. Where the books live, … "

"Oh, the library, you're … " she flipped through her personal organiser and looked up again "Joy Merryweather?"

"That's me. Who's this Daria you thought I was?"

"Oh, just some, … Uh, have a seat, Miss Merryweather" said Angela.

-

It was a watcher cliché that they usually ended up running libraries, but it was a functional one, since they could easily stock it with the information of their trade.

Daria had also copied the watchers council database of demons and organisations, known alternate dimensions, magics, etc. and would receive an update from a courier she knew personally. One who traveled around picking up and dropping off updates. The only time information was passed over the internet was in an emergency, the majority of the communications were spoof messages. Since the majority were such utter bullshit, the minority that were real were unread by spies because they had all given up. That was the theory, anyway, but spies that timed their eavesdropping just right would possibly get what they need.

She concentrated on the pen in her desk organizer, trying to get it to move. It finally happened, she stopped it about a metre overhead. She heard someone enter the library, breaking her concentration, the pen dropped back into the desk organizer.

"Well Helllloooooo my-" started Upchuck.

"Arch nemesis if you continue that train of thought" replied Daria.

"Fffff-" Upchuck started, but couldn't finish because he felt his bladder discharge. He stared down at himself horrified, he then placed the book he was returning on the desk and ran off.

Jodie entered the library, and looked at her saying "Daria?"

"Okay, somebody tell me who Daria is? Because I obviously look like her, and Angela said something about her being in prison. I want to know about my double" said Daria.

"If you're not her, … "

"I'm Joy Merryweather" said Daria.

"I'm Jodie Landon. Daria Morgendorffer was a student here, but she was involved in the theft of police property, including an APC and some guns. She is now in prison for the next 15 years"

"Right, thank you"

"You're welcome" said Jodie, before heading off in search of a book.

-

"What have any of these texts got to do with my mission?" asked Illyria.

"That will become apparent later" said Wesley, as he worked on his assigned task.

Illyria approached Wesley and stood on his desk, grabbing his head by the ears so his face was aimed directly at hers and said "You are attempting to distract me from my mission. You're not even working on the destruction of the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. You have become seduced by their resources and wish to support your masters" stated Illyria.

"Yes, I'm keeping you distracted, but your assumption about my desire to destroy the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart is flat out wrong. We will find a way, but Angel doesn't want you anywhere near our plan, now-" Wesley pushed the muzzle of one of his pistols into her chest and said "-remove your hands from my body, or you can sit out the mission feeding the worms"

Illyria frowned at him for a few seconds, then shoved his head back, propelling him into the window with enough energy to make the sound of head against glass painful.

She then stood up, stepped off the desk, and left.

-

"Hey Illyria, how goes it with Wesley?" asked the one named Gunn, as he approached Illyria's table.

"He keeps me from contributing to the mission he claims he's committed to. Are you also going to waste my time?" asked Illyria, only pausing her consumption of Petri dishes long enough to answer his question.

Gunn sat down opposite her, and said "considering what you did to Fred, you should consider yourself lucky he hasn't instead decided to examine the effects of firearms on your body. And I'd help him, or have a go myself when he was finished."

"What I did to Fred was based on the reasonable assumption that she was involved with an assassination attempt against me. I have long been an adversary of the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, and she was in charge of your practical sciences department. She also had the weapon I saw Daria aiming at me in my fragmented timeline. I had to find out how this weapon worked, I no longer consider her a threat."

Gunn thought about his response. He couldn't believe she just claimed probable cause without the slightest hint of contrition as if this was an internal affairs investigation. His friend, his former girlfriend, the girl he loved, was just a suspect to her, and she expected the same perspective of everyone else.

"Illyria, did people ever apologise in your day?" asked Gunn.

"They did, hoping I would spare them."

Gunn stood up, smacking the table with his hands, causing some of the Petri dishes to bounce of Illyria's plate and said "DAMN IT ILLYRIA, YOU ARE NOT THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE! IF YOU WANT TO CONSOLIDATE ALLIANCES, YOU HAVE TO TREAT OTHERS AS EQUALS! YOU CAN NOT ASSUME, THAT EVERYONE WILL WORSHIP AND OBEY"

"Obviously" observed Illyria as she placed the stray Petri dishes back on her plate. This was the second time someone came to her with this kind of advice "I am prepared to negotiate the terms of my entrance into an alliance with your organisation."

"Oh really?" asked Gunn, he put his hands in his pockets.

"I wish to remain able to fight, and in control of my mental faculties. But as long as the reprisal Fred determines does not remove either, I am willing to consider the price." said Illyria.

Gunn looked at her, considering her proposal.

"Angel will have to oversee such a negotiation" he said, he then left.

Illyria would be patient, but she would have to consider plans that did not involve Angel and his team as allies.

She had rarely needed other forces than those she had commanded in her day. Now she had to offer something that they wanted; Something that she could possibly barely afford. Chances were that Angel's organisation may demand too much and she would have to break off negotiations. She was going to win one way or another, and there was no point in rushing it. A poorly executed attack could get her killed instead, but since she was pretty much immortal (discounting artificial factors). She had as long as the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart had.

-

Daria returned to her current place of residence: Penny's room at Jane's house.

"So, how was your first day?" asked Jane.

"Swell, starting to get the hang of it." said Daria.

"Librarianining?"

"Telekenesis"

"Magic?" asked Jane.

"Yep"

"Seem to be getting the hang of it quickly." said Jane.

"Yeah, Willow said the same thing, and expressed concern."

There was a knock on the door. Daria answered it, and let Tiffany in.

"Miss Merryweather" said Tiffany, as she entered. She was dressed in camouflage trousers, a jacket, and with a pair of steel toed boots. She had a small sports bag hanging off her shoulder.

"Hey Tiff, what's with the change?" asked Daria.

"Didn't seem much point remaining fashionable: No dates, no friends wanting much to do with me. I figured I might as well dress for work" said Tiffany.

"Right, I'm still trying to catch up on your logs. Andrew's narration is either a fiendishly cleaver anti-spy tactic, or he's as convinced of his thrilling narration abilities as Upchuck is of his pulling power. I could blow it off and join you on patrol, you could fill me in on any significant events." Daria suggested.

"Can you fight?" asked Tiffany.

"Well, my hand to hand skills are still at the novice level, but I could always bring something to help me out." said Daria, grabbing her other jacket off the wall and the holster under it. It was a back holster and ammo belt for a sawn off shotgun, she put the harness on. "I'm saving for an automatic shotgun."

"I thought vampires couldn't be killed by gunshot wounds" said Jane.

"Nope, it's stake through the heart, ignition, prolonged contact with crucifixes, sunlight and holy water, and, … " she pulled one of the rounds (brass base, red case, with a yellow stripe around the front) from her ammo belt saying "decapitation"

"With a, … 12 gauge?" asked Jane.

"Nope, Fin stabilised high explosive." said Daria.

"Are those legal?" asked Jane.

"Council swung a permit, but I had to manufacture the ammunition myself. Luckily your mom had the necessary tools in the basement. I only had to bring the blank cartridges, propellant, and materials to make the shell and filler." said Daria. She then continued "They won't reimburse me for an automatic shotgun though; I'm having to save up for that"

"What was the thing Willow expressed concern over?" asked Jane.

"Apparently she presented megalomania as a result of her rapidly increasing skill, started taking insane risks: Editing her girlfriend's memory, flicking the main breaker on and off by telekenisis. Almost ended up incinerating the planet when said girlfriend was wasted by some wannabe gangster." said Daria.

"Whoa, that sounds, … What about you?" asked Jane.

"I suppose, I'll have to maintain vigilance. Besides, Willow's a good guy again, and using magic responsibly, so I suppose the problem shouldn't be insurmountable. I just got to be careful, I guess. There are differences between the kinds of magics I'll be learning to use, telekenisis is simply moving stuff with my thoughts. That's a relatively safe one. The harder ones are the spells, because they tend to have instant results and alter reality, materialise objects. There's also the energy itself, that's one of the biggest problems." said Daria.

"How so?" asked Jane.

"Well, mystical energy is barely understood by practitioners of magics, and the amount of energy a single person can wield is extreme. You remember what happened with Illyria, the explosive yield we were looking at?"

"Yeah, would have been like some sort of nuclear explosion." said Jane.

"No, it wouldn't. Nukes draw their energy from the annihilation of matter; energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Mystical energy goes way beyond that. It's not the kind of thing you can ever translate from matter: You can call upon it, channel it, use it, it hangs just outside our perception." Daria explained.

"Okay, well, if it's likely to be so powerful, do you really think you should be messing with it?" asked Jane.

"It's a useful tool in combat. I'm not one to turn down ammunition if I can use it. I'm also reading up on Willows notes about what happened with her. It seems she was introduced to a person who supplied her with some sort of ready to use energy, gave her a mystical version of a sugar rush, got her hooked on that. She was presenting poor judgement before that, but that seemed to be the point where it eliminated her sense of caution, added a dependence on this guys energy to the mix." said Daria.

"Again, doesn't that make it the sort of thing you should avoid?" Jane asked again.

"Not if it can help me do my job. I'll keep in mind how unstable magic is, develop my skill, and, hope I can avoid making a large part of the planet disappear."

-

She didn't need magic to pull a man. In fact, she could pull several at once. But Amy was getting bored with the whole whore act, so she just used her magics to get as many as possible.

She would get a couple of them to blow her, the rest were for her minions to use. Some of them had the M factor that qualified them for turning.

M for megalomania.

Amy didn't know what effect being turned might have on her magical ability, so she didn't go for it herself. Besides, she wanted to hang onto her daylight mobility. Still, she needed an army, and since she had something to keep vampires interested (a steady supply of human snacks), they seemed perfect.

As long as the sun wasn't shining, but she was getting good at weather spells, so she could usually create the right conditions.

She entered the house that she had gotten the owners of to invite the vamps into and met her senior officers.

"Oooh, got some pretty dolls for me to play with." said Drusilla.

"Yeah, whatever, you nut" said Erin, as she and Brian got up off the couch to pick out their meals.

"Don't be so hard on Dru, Erin, we're all a little crazy" said Amy.

"Mmmm, I like this one. He smells of galvanised haemoglobin" commented Drusilla as she picked one out of the crowd.

"Although some crazies are more equal than others." Amy admitted.

"Okay, well, we're undead and loving it, provided we can actually start taking over the world. We going to go to work now?" asked Erin.

"Sure, tonight we'll turn all the cops in this town, then we'll do the same to the day shift" said Amy.

-

"-So, I was like, 'you were saying?', then these two cops showed up and had me put down my weapon. I had to wait for them to get real close before I could do anything. I had to throw one into the other in order to get them off their game, but in the process the vamp legged it. I could do little else but also get some distance" said Tiffany, concluding one of the more interesting reports.

"Not a lot of activity going on here." observed Daria.

"Not a lot of Hellmouths in our world." Tiffany replied.

"It's a pity most the slayers have family that can't for whatever reason be involved. If we could improve our mobility, there'd be enough of us to go state by state." said Daria.

"Would that be effective?" asked Jane.

"I dunno, but I think we would be more effective if we could move more of our forces around." said Daria.

"The fact that we don't, as a force for good, have legal recognition and authority is another issue." said Tiffany.

"Not a lot we can do about that. The Watchers Council isn't secretive because our tactics depend on it, it's secretive to keep us all from being confined to psychiatric wards." Daria countered.

-

PC Sarah Park was about to leave for work when there was a knock on the door.

She answered it, a woman with long black hair dressed in a long flowing skirt and fuck all else was standing there. "Hello my child. I am Drusilla, the fairy god queen, here on a mission of love. May I come in?"

Sarah looked at her for a few seconds, and said "I guess you'd better, come in, have a seat." she turned to go for her phone to call an ambulance; that woman, on drugs or not, needed help.

She picked up the phone and turned around to direct the woman to a sofa, but the woman had changed her appearance: Her face now looked butt ugly, her irises were yellow, and her canines were pointy.

-

Brian knocked on his targets door and straightened his tie.

The man answered and Brian introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Brian Danielson, I'm here to talk to you about possible radon emissions in your area. May I come in?"

-

"Anatomical drawing and microprocessors at the same time. … And that indicates what exactly?" asked Jane.

"Androids, turns out Willows expertise of robotics came from dissecting two robots made by this other Upchuck like guy, Warren Meers. Both were self propelled real dolls: One named April, the other was a copy of Buffy Summers, one of the senior slayers, commissioned by William, ... Something, call sign 'Spike', can't remember his surname right now." said Daria.

"Upchuck building sexbots, D'you reckon if he builds one, he'll stop hitting on us?" asked Tiffany.

-

"Where's Erin?" asked Amy.

Drusilla and Brian looked at each other.

-

"Ooh, I so know what you mean there, Miss Freklestein." said Erin, as they discussed the pros and cons of open air wedding ceremonies.

-

Then they looked back in the direction they had come from, they headed back.

"By the way, you mind covering yourself between jobs Dru? We're trying to avoid attention right now"

"But I want to attract more prey, they so like my lovely charms, like fireflies to an electric arc" replied Drusilla.

"Which would also draw attention. I can't stress how important it is that we don't give any warning to the watcher's council until it is too late for them to act." said Amy.

-

"Whoa, check out the topless chick." said Tiffany.

"Yeah, they do seem a little conspicuous." said Daria.

The trio ahead of them turned a corner.

"Yeah, exhibitionist gal's a vampire, that's my former roommate" said Jane.

"Right, I'm on it" said Tiffany, starting to run after them.

"Wait, let's see if they go to a nest first." Daria suggested.

"Okay, good call"

They jogged across the road and headed for the _leylandii line bordering the front yard closest to the corner_

-

Amy looked into the front lounge through the window, seeing Erin discussing some marriage magazine with the target.

She sighed and walked to the front door and knocked.

The occupant answered it.

"Hi, I'm with Erin. There's something I need to discuss with her, y'mind?"

She let Amy in.

Amy entered the house and said "Erin? … What are you doing?"

"I was discussing the latest issues of the magazine as per my job." replied Erin.

"No, as per your cover, remember? Cover for getting into cops houses so you can turn them into vampires? Remember?"

"All right, All right," said Erin, getting and throwing the magazine into the sofa "you don't have to get snotty about it." She promptly vamped out and grabbed the stunned woman, and fed off of her.

-

"Jane, hide, follow any runners, report their destination or last known location." Daria ordered as Tiffany headed off in the direction of the scream. Daria then pulled her sawn off and followed.

-

Tiffany encountered the three people minus the other girl, but saw a blonde vampire feeding off a 40ish woman, she would have to engage that one first. She got inside before Dru and friend could react. The blond vampire wasn't really paying attention to the front door, so she got around her and staked her.

She pulled the victim into a more defensible location, looking at the other girl, who was rooted to the spot. Aside from the blonde she had just killed, Drusilla was the only confirmed vampire.

"ERIN! NO!" she heard the distressed cry from the boy outside, then she heard him shout "AMY, INVITE ME IN!"

"I don't live here, the resident isn't dead yet, just unconscious." said 'Amy'. The girl then waved her hand and Tiffany felt herself fly against the wall, the force pinned her limbs and she felt her ribcage start to bend.

-

Daria skipped sideways, ready to shoot, Drusilla and Brian turned to her game faced. She shot Drusilla first, but Dru bowed her head and the projectile struck her forehead instead. The blast caused a 5cm wide, 1cm deep crater, she collapsed unconscious. Daria fired at Brian who was distracted by Drusilla's collapse. The projectile struck his top vertebra from it's 10 o'clock position, having the intended effect of kicking the bone out of the neck and breaking any connection between the shoulders and the head.

Daria opened the breech with one hand, grabbing two fresh rounds with the other. The spent cartridges had just fallen out of the weapon when the girl (presumably the one Brian called Amy) came out, eyes pitch black, her hand pointed at Daria. Suddenly Daria was pulled down onto her ass, then onto her back, her arms and legs pinned were they landed. She felt like she was lying on a neutron star. She saw the girl walk off with Drusilla over one shoulder, with her hand still pointed at Daria. She was out of sight before the force abated. Daria took a moment to recover enough to sit up. She reloaded her sawn off, pocketing the spent cartridges, and got to her feet. She was about to call Tiffany's name, but decided that having her name heard at a crime scene would probably be a bad thing, so she entered the house. She found Tiffany in the woman's bedroom with the woman holding a credit card over the holes Erin had left. Tiffany had called for an ambulance.

"You two okay?" asked Daria.

"She's alive and conscious, looks like we were just in time." said Tiffany.

"I got Brian, Amy and Dru got away. I'm gonna join the hunt, soon as the medics arrive, … " said Daria.

"Gotcha."

-

Amy got to the front door and found she had to reach her key pocket with her other hand as the hand corresponding with the pocket was holding Drusilla's hand.

She felt fangs puncture her shoulder "You're awake now are you?" she asked, looking at Drusilla's vamped out face.

Drusilla paused in her feeding and Amy dropped her on the ground, she then got her keys out and opened the front door.

The other vamps met her in the hall way, Drusilla followed Amy, asking "Are you angry at me for stealing your crimson syrup of life?"

Amy turned to her and said "Tell you what Dru, if you can figure out the correct answer to that AND deliver it without any weird insane rambling, I'll forego punishing you, okay?" she then turned back to her crew and said "Pack up, we're moving house, anywhere east of here. We bumped into a Slayer and a demon hunter, took out the Danielsons, and possibly sent a scout: I saw the same face behind us a few times, so we have to assume they know our location now. We'll cross to our rear right neighbours back yard, in case the scout's watching the front."

-

Angel entered central filing and sought out the person he was looking for.

"Illyria, what are you doing?" asked Angel.

Illyria stood up straight, looking around, and whispered "Where is she?"

Angel cocked his head, and, in a lazy tone, said "Leery, you smell nothing like Harmony."

Illyria dropped her disguise and said "You and your minions will not let me participate in your mythical attempt to destroy the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. The situation dictates I find another means to accomplish my mission."

Angel sighed and said "You tortured one of my staff, and recently assaulted another."

"The first time was in response to a highly probable assassination attempt, the second was down to your minions attempt to divert my attention with pointless busywork." She replied coldly.

"And what will you do after Wolfram and Hart are gone?" he asked.

"I intend to reclaim what was mine" said Illyria.

"You are probably aware that none of us have any intention of reinstating you as a god, especially given the violence of your rule." said Angel.

"I made a proposal that your minion Gunn said he would forward to you" said Illyria.

"He mentioned that. The problem is it is difficult to imagine any punishment making any kind of impression. Your age prior to your incarceration in the deeper well means you would have the mental endurance to shrug off anything short of lethal force" said Angel.

-

"That's the second cop I've been involved in an incident with" said Tiffany.

"That woman Erin was biting?" asked Daria.

"Yeah, I saw her warrant card fall out of her pocket when I pulled her wallet to get her credit card"

"Okay, Drusilla and Amy, I'm assuming that's Amy Madison, are both considered major players. Amy less so, because of her young age, but Willow listed her as a mid skill witch who is self centred and reckless enough to be considered a potential threat, so if she's running with Drusilla, or Drusilla with her, we have to take that seriously. Erin and Brian, probably there as minions, that many vamps in one place, Brian, Amy, and Drusilla converged on that house for whatever reason."

"You think they're up to something?" Asked Tiffany.

"Amy's hanging with Vampires, saved Drusilla's ass, what I'm wondering is what would they want with cops?" asked Daria.

"Cops plural?" asked Tiffany.

"Yeah, like I said, it was just a hunt, why go for someone who's home?" asked Daria.

-

"And you'd look sweet, on the tandem seat, of a bicycle made, for two, he-he-he-he." sang Drusilla.

"Dru, could you please at least PRETEND to be paying attention?" asked Amy.

"What happened to her?" asked one of the vamps.

"Angelus drove her nuts prior to turning her." said Amy.

"I mean on the mission?" the vamp asked.

"Explosive round to the head, if you're wondering about the crater." said Amy, as Drusilla continued to dance and sing really old songs, she started into 'Don't Dilly Dally On The Way'.

"Man, that shot must have really fucked her up." commented another vamp.

"Well, I can't honestly say I noticed any difference myself" said Amy, desperate to get back on topic, she then turned to the giggling insane vamp and forced her into a sitting position on the floor saying "Don't make me squash you into neutronium."

"Aww" pouted Drusilla as Amy turned to the rest of her force.

"Now, we got most of the night shift, they will soon be turning up at work, they will turn the staff present and the following shifts into vampires. Then each night, they will go around and turn the rest of this town with door to door enquiries. We get around a third of the town turned. The rest is food. Although in the long term, we are going to have to start thinking about how to farm our blood cows, aren't we?"

-

Daria and Tiffany met up with Jane where she had phoned in the location of the nest.

"I haven't seen any movement since Amy and Drusilla got there." said Jane.

"Okay, Tiff and I will do a recon, Jane, you grab your flamethrower and meet us back here." said Daria.

"Right" said Jane, before heading off.

"Okay, and, err, what exactly are we supposed to do against the gravity queen?" asked Tiffany.

"Go on a diet." suggested Daria.

"Fuuuu-neeeeeey"

They headed across the road to the house.

-

Illyria stood in her cell, wondering how long it would be until Angel figured out that she was essential to his victory over the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart.

Hadn't she been humiliated enough already? First she infects the wrong body (UPS will regret that to the extent that her enemies regretted so much as slagging her off in her day). Then she loses her powers. Then she finds herself having use diplomacy. And now, … now, … … NOW SHE WAS WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DECIDE HER FATE LIKE ONE OF HER SLAVES!

The mental outburst was just that, mental, externally, she didn't move.

The one called Spike walked into view.

"Has your leader reached a decision yet?" asked Illyria.

"Err, no, they're still rolling the dice up there, tallying the results. More even numbers than odd, we let you participate. More odd than even, … " he grinned and made a cut throat gesture.

"Do not mock me, half breed. … … I have offered to submit to the wrath of the one you call Fred, as she was the one who was wronged."

"Uh-huh, well, I've never known her to be the vengeful kind"

"You have obviously not seen her when she is angered. When the one called Willow removed the talisman from Fred's neck, I sensed an intense rage, the kind of rage that would compel her to kill people she loves in order to carry it out. Fred is perfectly capable of designing an appropriate penalty. Or overstepping it."

"You sensed it, huh? What else can you sense?"

"Grief, joy, euphoria, distress. Last night I sensed Wesley and Fred's joy when they engaged in sexual intercourse in one of the supply closets on the floor below"

"Fascinating. … Who was your shell?"

"Her name was Stacy Rowe, she was a member of an organisation known as the Lawndale High Fashion Club"

"Fashion Club? That's the sort of thing Harmony would create."

"That was not really where her passion lay," said Illyria "she merely joined it to enhance her public figure, to avoid persecution. She felt highly vulnerable, open to attack. That is the same reason Knox tried to win my approval. She was Sandi Griffin's Qwa'ha Xahn"

-

Daria and Tiffany met back in front of the house.

"See anything?" asked Daria.

"Nothing, either they're out, holed in the basement, or have moved off." said Tiffany.

Jane showed up with her favourite toy (covered in a big cloth) "Find anything?"

"Nope, but we need to check inside" said Daria.

"Okay" said Jane, she looked around to see if they were being watched, then she pulled the cloth off her flamethrower.

It had flames painted all over it's fuel stores, the frame was painted gloss black, and it had an iridescent finish on the fuel stores changed from the fire colours to a purple/grey at different angles.

"Nice paint job." Tiffany said, impressed.

"Little worrying though, you haven't named it have you?" asked Daria.

"Nope" said Jane as she turned the generator on, Daria nodded and turned to the front door before Jane finished, "Haven't thought of a name yet."

Daria looked at her, as Jane vamped out and pulled the rip chord on the generator, she then lit the pilot light.

Daria pulled her own weapon and a flashlight, and Tiffany pulled her stake. Daria placed her hand on the lock, opening it with telekinesis. She then entered, flashlight held against the weapons forearm.

Daria went left, Tiffany went right, Jane stayed in the middle watching the stairs. Her weapon, though massively destructive, wasn't much good at point blank because in that time it takes to catch fire, the target could incapacitate and kill her.

There wasn't much furniture that could conceal a person standing, so Daria cleared the room fairly quickly.

-

Tiffany entered the dining room, she dropped to a low crouch, saw nothing, then lifted to a squat as she checked the dining room cabinets, all clear.

She moved onto the kitchen.

She checked all the cupboards that could conceivably hide a vampire.

-

Daria met Tiffany near the back door.

"Nothing" said Tiffany.

"Ditto" said Daria.

"Where next?" asked Tiffany.

"Basement" Daria replied.

Daria took a position to the left of the door, and Tiffany pulled it open.

Daria then skipped down the stairway getting a look at the basement in full real early. She checked under the stairs too.

She noted a washing machine, a tumble dryer, and several shelf units, a work shop, and a big cloth covered device in the centre.

Daria signalled Tiffany to advance, she then signalled Tiffany to go around one side of the device, while she went around the other way.

Daria lowered her weapon and turned back to the stairway.

They re-entered the rest of the house, then they went up stairs, Jane followed.

Jane stayed at the top of the stairs, while Daria and Tiffany cleared rooms.

They came up with nothing.

"Attic?" asked Tiffany.

"I guess" said Daria.

They pulled the counterweighted door down and released the ladder.

Daria handed the flashlight to Tiffany. Since this was an obvious ambush point, it would be better if the hand to hand expert went up first.

Tiffany advanced into the attic and Daria followed.

They approached the main cistern and went their opposite ways around it.

Again, nothing.

They returned to the first floor and closed the attic door.

"Well, that confirms it, we're going to have to look for signs of an escape. The plus side is it's night, relatively little foot traffic to disturb the tracks of our escaping horde of undead." said Daria.

They headed back down stairs.

They decided to go out the back way.

Daria's foot kicked an invisible force.

Daria pushed at the invisible barrier with her hand.

Then she headed to the front door.

Same results.

"Okay, windows, check everything" said Daria.

It took a few minutes for Jane to go through the upstairs, Daria the ground floor, and Tiffany the basement.

They returned to the centre of the lounge.

"The chimney?" asked Jane.

"I don't really feel like appearing on Americas Dumbest Criminals. Amy must have plans that go beyond annoying us." said Daria.

"A trap?" Tiffany asked.

"Yeah, … we never did check that thing in the basement, did we?" mused Daria.

They headed downstairs to find out what it was.

Daria lifted the cloth to find large sacks of ammonium nitrate, sitting in a pool of something. Daria wiped her fingers in it and sniffed, it was diesel.

She and Tiffany lifted the cloth completely off and found an electronic box poking out from between two of the sacks.

There was a display counting down from 28m42s.

"Okay, well, I guess that should have been expected." said Jane.

"I don't think we should attempt to defuse this thing or remove any of these sacks. We need to take down the barrier" said Daria.

"Can you do that?" asked Tiffany.

"I tried earlier, but Amy's way more powerful; I feel like I need to check my watch against the clock on teletext or something after that gravity spell. I'll try calling out from the attic, the distance should hopefully prevent me tripping any RF sensitive components in the fuse, but I doubt Willow's anywhere near here." said Daria.

"Then try my mom, she has to be a powerful witch to ensoul me." said Jane.

"She in now?" asked Daria.

"Last I was there." said Jane.

They headed upstairs.

Daria asked Jane her mom's number and Jane gave it to her, but Daria stopped immediately "What?"

"No signal" said Daria.

"Okay, then what do we do?" asked Jane.

"hmm, … Amy's spell is using energy, it can only do that for so long, we need to exhaust it" Daria got up and headed back down stairs "I don't think we're doing it with force, find a compass."

"Why?" asked Jane.

"I wanna check something." Daria replied.

Daria Jane and Tiffany each picked a room and looked.

"FOUND ONE" called Jane, they met in the hallway, and Daria looked at it. The needle was turning slowly.

"She covered anything magnetic too." said Daria, she then took the compass to a window and the needle started spinning really, really fast.

"How's that useful?" asked Jane.

"Magnetic flux is less work to derive from mystical energy" said Daria "but the collapse of the spell might cause a big electromagnetic pulse that could trip the fuse even if it isn't designed for RF sensitivity"

"So, what do we do then?" asked Jane.

"I need to check one more thing" said Daria, she then headed downstairs, they followed her down.

She entered the basement, "The hearth is standing on this big stone column. We rip the fire out, place the kitchen table with enough mass in the cavity underneath it to tamper the blast. That should give us a place to wait out the blast." said Daria as she returned.

"We're on it" said Tiffany.

Jane followed Tiffany as Daria went for the table.

She, Jane and Tiffany then went around getting every book, board, and immovable lump they could find.

"Now help me move the stove from the kitchen" said Daria.

They did.

They loaded everything into the underside of the table and taped it in place. Then Daria directed the strong girls to place the stove in front of the hearth, leaving just enough space for them to squeeze in behind the table.

"My Flamethrower!"

"There will be others." Daria told her.

"Oh? And if it was one of your stories?" asked Jane.

"Okay, place it in the corner of the basement that has a clear view of the bomb, that way, no shrapnel. Put it right up against the walls" said Daria.

Jane ran down.

"Will that really protect it?" asked Tiffany.

"I dunno, it should do, but the paint will probably get roasted" said Daria.

Jane returned and said "5 minutes" before getting in with them. They had to squeeze together, since they could not allow the table to transfer any load onto them, and Daria decided to start using her magnetic skills to try to bring down the field early so they could clear off the instant it was down.

It was a long 5 minutes.

"What if it's a dud?" asked Tiffany.

"We can't assume that." Daria reasoned.

"I can't see my watch." said Jane.

They waited.

"How do we know five minutes have elapsed?" asked Tiffany.

"I'm counting down from 300." said Daria.

"Ah" acknowledged Tiffany.

They waited a little longer.

Suddenly they heard a bang. The table was thrown against the fireplace, they heard the stove collide with the chimney stack, and it fell backwards.

They looked up and saw the smoke cloud rising, and bits of the house in the air falling mostly downwind.

They got up and tried to step outside the property line. It worked "Okay, we need to be gone. Jane, hurry up with your flamethrower and pick an escape route, then return to base" said Daria.

-

Jane entered the Lane house with her Flamethrower on her back, covered once again in its concealing cloth.

"I don't think I was seen." said Jane.

"Good" said Daria.

Jane took the device off her back and examined it, there was no visible sign of damage aside from some dust.

"I guess if we're going up against Amy, we need another witch on board." said Daria.

"I'll talk to mom then." said Jane, headed to the basement.

"And I'll call Willow." said Daria, grabbing her cell phone again.

Amanda and Trent entered.

"JANE, SHE'S OVER HERE!" shouted Daria.

Jane returned "Hi mom."

"Jane, what happened out there? I was looking at the stars in the back yard, and I saw this ring of mist moving through the sky like a nuclear bomb had gone off."

"It wasn't though, the speakers at my gig would have been blown out by the pulse" said Trent.

"You know what an EMP is?" asked Jane.

"I heard the phrase EMP hardened in a few electronics stores and asked Daria what it meant." said Trent.

"Mist was a rarefaction zone from the blast caused by a shit load of ANFO detonating in the basement of a house we were trapped in. Oh, and by the way, Jane says you're a witch?"

"Yes"

"Right, We might need your help with something. See, there's this other, less pleasant witch called Amy Madison. She's the one who set that spell that trapped us in that house" said Daria as she waited for her phone to ring.

"Who are you calling?" asked Amanda.

"Another witch, probably better to have two against her" the phone stopped ringing.

"Hi Joy." said Willow.

"Willow, how far are you from Lawndale right now?"

"Several thousand miles, I'm in England right now"

"Okay, just I've encountered Amy Madison here, and she's up to something. Last saw her at the scene of a biting carrying off Drusilla, who I didn't quite kill, but managed to ding slightly."

"I'll be right there." said Willow.

-

"Damn it" said Amy, upon hearing that no casualties had been found in the house. She turned off the TV and said "What is it with good guys? I mean, I could incinerate the surface of the planet and they'd still be there, 'Hello, Hi mom, I'm on telly.'" she said, before chucking the remote into the sofa.

"They're like the moat of goldfish surrounding the giant peach of the round table." said Drusilla.

Amy turned to her and then turned back the way she was facing, and said "At least we got the majority of the Night shift. One that got away will be thrown in a padded cell when she says she was attacked by vampires and a witch, I guess we're sorted for now." she landed back on the couch and told everyone "Get some sleep, get some tail, get some blood if you can get away with it, just don't get us found for the next 8 hours." before falling asleep on the couch.

The other vamps dispersed to go about chosen activity.

-

"Raping the geek

And hustling the freak

Like a hunchback juice

On a sentimental noose

Operation filth

They love to love the wealth

Of an SS whore

Making scary sounds

Crawl on me

Sink into me

Die for me-"

"MISS MERRYWEATHER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SINGING? DON'T YOU CARE THAT THERE ARE CHILDREN ABOUT?" interrupted Angela.

Daria turned around and looked at her in bewilderment and, a few seconds later, asked "have you HEARD the shit kids listen to today?"

-

When Daria got to the library, she met Tiffany.

"Willow should be here this afternoon." said Daria.

"Okay, it would help if we had a way to infiltrate the vampire nest." Tiffany said.

"Yeah, I'd have Jane do it, but Drusilla knows her. I also think we could do with Illyria's help on this, but her objectives are to take over the world. I am concerned that she could end up teaming up with Amy, so it looks like we wait for Willow and see if she can locate Amy." said Daria.

"What about Amanda Lane?" asked Tiffany.

"I asked her, but she called no joy after the 5th map blew up in her face, so we're not going to get anything done until Willow gets here."

"Booby traps, gravity, possibly weather, since she's running with vampires, what else does she have form for?" asked Tiffany.

"Transmutation of animals, mind fucking Willow, introducing Willow to Rack, the guy who got her hooked on the mystical equivalent of crack cocaine, transmutating Buffy Summers into a rat, Amy also got hooked on Racks magic." said Daria.

"This Rack, maybe we could locate him?" asked Tiffany.

"Nope, he's dead."

"Okay, who else could Amy go to?" asked Tiffany.

"I'm not sure she would go to anyone like that again. As I said, mystical version of crack, makes you feel powerful, but you become a slave to it. If Amy was doing that kind of magic, I seriously doubt she would have the presence of mind to be able to lead a gang, or build a bomb and accompany it with a snare spell" said Daria.

"So she's like that naturally?" asked Tiffany.

"Most likely." said Daria.

"Most likely?" asked Tiffany.

"Well, … Amy's never shown any inclination beyond her own needs and pleasures before, but that doesn't mean she's working for someone else necessarily." said Daria.

"But something feels off to you?" asked Tiffany.

"Yeah" said Daria.

"But you don't know what?"

"Pretty much" said Daria.

-

Amy was awoken by someone entering her alarm field. She looked up at the vamp leaning over her and pushed him off telekinetically.

Amy got a good look at him. He was in knee length denim shorts, a Marylyn Manson tee shirt, and had green spiky hair, some ear and nose rings, and trainers. A lot of dirt was present in his clothes.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Amy looked around and shouted "DRUSILLA?" before getting up.

She then turned to the vamp and said "I'm Amy Madison, the boss to you if you wish to remain here, and you are?"

The vamp unvamped his face, "Shaun Littleton"

"And you were just turned today?" asked Amy.

"Turned?" he asked.

"In, to, a, vam, pire." clarified Amy.

"I'm a vampire? … Whoahhhhh" he said, sounding like your stereotypical stoner.

Amy sighed again and shouted "DRUSILLA! WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU?"

"Boss lady's upset at something?" asked Drusilla.

"What's this?" asked Amy pointing at the newest member of their army.

"Shaun Littleton, the stars and the voices told me he's going to be a lot of fun to be around." said Drusilla.

"Right, voices and stars, … You could at least have stayed with him and told him what was going on. I mean, fine, turn them, I want an army, just be sure to tell them what's what when they wake will you? And what's with the dirt? You always bury your ones. Why?" asked Amy.

"I need to, it makes the birth special." said Drusilla.

"Whatever, just don't leave new vamps to wake up unattended, okay Dru?"

"I just wish we could have done it by star light, it doesn't feel right without the starlight" said Dru.

"The sun's a star." said Shaun.

"Yeah, if you like the burning feeling. Sorry, but the only vampire clichés that aren't true are silver, garlic, and transmutation. … Except for Dracula, but he's a walking cliché."

"I see, … So, … you just need muscle, or can I, like, blow stuff up too?" asked Shaun.

Amy looked like she was about to cry.

-

Angel walked up to Illyria's cage and asked "comfy?"

Illyria cocked her head and said "indeed"

"Not bored are you?" asked Angel.

"Have you reached a decision about my proposal that we join forces?"

"Illyria, I just can't take any chances, you are a completely unknown quantity, you are a megalomaniac. How can you be trusted?"

"How can the Watcher's Council trust you?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You have entered the employment of their enemy; they do not trust you. You are also under the employment of my enemy, and I trust you. Perhaps you would return the favour"

"You still wish to reclaim the world as your own domain, and will, how did you put it? Serve no master but your ambition?"

"You assume that means doing so within a time scale you can handle. You fail to realise how old I am, and that I intend to do it in a manner that lasts and generates genuine loyalty, and will ensure I inherit the combined military assets of this world at their full strength. I can not do that simply by coercing anyone, not any more. I need to convince people that I deserve their loyalty, I will conquer through endearment, not intimidation."

"That could take a while." said Angel.

"Indeed, I estimate 50-200 years."

"Right" Angel walked off.

Illyria resumed her original pose.

-

"You're not going to believe she won't do it violently, will you?" asked Spike.

"Not sure what to believe, but she might be reconsidering her policy towards the recruitment minions." said Angel.

"Or, she's trying to fool everyone into believing that." said Spike.

"She has all the time in the world, then all the time of another if she sees the development of interstellar craft." Said Angel.

"Fucks sake." Spike said, leaving the security room.

-

"For fucks sake, can't anyone make an effort to keep this place tidy?" asked Amy after tripping over another corpse.

"Sorry boss." said one of the vampires.

They were just getting ready to resume operations. It was mainly up to the cops they had turned to start turning other cops and some of the more suitable criminals into vampires, but they had another problem, possibly, depending on how big a problem the Slayer thinks she has.

"Willow is coming." said Drusilla, proving Amy's paranoia to be justified.

"Right, that case, we need a serious distraction in order to keep her away. We need to take that slayer out of the picture, but in such a way that it prevents the others from working on us." said Amy.

"How do we distract her then?" asked another vampire.

Amy thought about it.

-

Willow and Kennedy exited the airport, and met Daria at the entrance.

"I'm starting to remember my way around this town, the number of times I've been here." said Willow.

"Yeah, sorry to drag you here again, but-" started Daria before Willow cut her off.

"Yeah, I know, Amy Madison, I really, really hate her."

"Seconded." said Kennedy.

"So, how's it going with Tiffany?" asked Willow.

"Too early to comment really, this is my second day as her watcher, she seems to be up to scratch though." said Daria.

"Is that a gun under your coat?" asked Kennedy.

"Sawn off shotgun, FSHE, use it to decapitate vampires." said Daria.

"With, fffffishing wire?" asked Kennedy.

"Fin Stabilised High Explosive" said Willow.

"Ohhh, … we never use guns" said Kennedy.

"Yeah, well, until I catch up with Tiffany, I'm not much help to her with a stake." said Daria.

-

Tiffany was headed to the Lanes when she noticed a group of vampires chasing Andrea along the road intersecting the street she was on, heading left.

"Game on." she said, pulling her stake, she started her pursuit.

As they approached the park, the group of vampires (10-15 approximately) fanned to Andrea's left, and they all turned right into the park through a 2m gate in the hedge line.

She followed them and immediately collided with two that were waiting at her two o'clock. She staked the first one, and the second went around to her 4 O'clock. She got the second one and was about to continue her pursuit when she noticed something wrong.

The two vampires she just staked.

They weren't turning to dust.

She went back to the bodies that were face down.

She turned them face up.

They weren't vampires.

-

Andrea kept running, the vampires fanned in one direction or another, like they were herding her, but she had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

She then saw Tiffany up ahead running towards her carrying a wooden baton or stake or something.

"TIFFANY, OTHER WAY, GO!" she shouted.

Tiffany ignored her and grabbed Andrea. Andrea was spun as Tiffany started engaging the things that had been chasing her.

Some of the monsters kept grabbing her, but Tiffany got them before any of them could do anything more than grab her.

Eventually the remaining monsters simply scattered.

Tiffany came over to Andrea and asked "you good there?"

Andrea looked up at her and said "Err, … what just happened?"

"You were being chased by a gang who, … were on, … PCP or something" said Tiffany.

" … PCP?" asked Andrea.

"Yeah, fucks up the face, … " Tiffany sounded about as convincing as the case for a ban on gay marriage.

"Whatever." said Andrea.

Tiffany and Andrea headed out of the park, but they then heard sirens.

"Listen, I got to, … " Tiffany trailed off pointing somewhere off to their left.

"Yeah, okay, I'm good now" said Andrea.

Tiffany then ran off.

Andrea continued on back the way she had come, hoping that Tiffany hadn't left her without being certain that those creatures were long gone.

Andrea encountered some uniformed police officers as she approached the gate she had entered the park through. Three were maintaining a perimeter while another two were putting up crime scene tape.

She looked on and saw two bodies with 3cm wide holes in their chests.

She looked back into the park for Tiffany, then at the bodies again.

"Ma'am?" one of the officers pointed his flashlight at her.

"Yes?" she responded a little uncertainly.

"Did you see anyone running away from this location earlier?"

"No, I don't, … no" she responded.

-

Tiffany couldn't maintain her run for long, it had become an extraordinary effort of will just to do her fucking job after she had, … … … …

She just kept walking, she eventually reached the parks perimeter.

She then decided to go home, she wasn't sure she wanted to go to her watcher now.

-

Daria, Willow and Kennedy entered the house and encountered Trent and his band.

"Hey Joy" said Trent.

"Trent" Daria greeted back, then she asked "Jane about?"

"Yeah, out back" he said.

"Thanks" said Daria as she lead Willow and Kennedy out back with her.

-

Jane and Amanda were discussing something out back when they got there.

"Daria, Willow, and, … " greeted Jane.

"Kennedy" said Kennedy.

"Where's Tiffany?" asked Daria.

"Dunno, she's running late." said Jane.

"Right, Willow, Jane's mom, Amanda Lane." introduced Daria.

"Hello" said Amanda.

"Pleased to meet you" said Willow.

"Okay, Willow, you have had the most experience in dealing with Amy Madison, so once Tiffany is here, we'll go over what we have observed lately and then see if we can formulate a plan." said Daria.

-

Tiffany entered the house and headed up stairs.

Her parents didn't seem to have noticed her return, that was good, because she knew full well she was sporting a spaced out look.

She placed her coat on her chair and sat on her bed, and stared at the big round mirror on her wall.

She didn't think to do anything else.

The phone rang.

Then someone picked up.

A few seconds later, her dad shouted "TIFFANY, IT'S FOR YOU"

Tiffany continued to sit there staring at herself for a few minutes.

"TIFFANY?"

Eventually Tiffany stood up and walked to her bedside table and picked up the phone "I got it dad."

She heard the click of the other phone being returned to it's cradle, and Jane asked "You done colour co-ordinating your stake with your outfit yet?"

"I, … I don't feel like coming tonight" Tiffany finally said.

"Oh, alright, no big, we got another slayer here if you want to take the night off." said Jane.

"Yeah, bye." Tiffany said, she then put the phone back down.

-

"Tiff's out, say's she's feeling ill." said Jane as she returned to the living room.

"Okay, I would have preferred to do this with two slayers, but I guess we can cope without her. Now, Amy was directing vampires to go after cops, is she planning on simply killing them all, turning them all, and is Lawndale were she intends to fulfil her ambitions, or is this a diversion for a bigger operation elsewhere?" asked Daria.

"Amy had some moments, but she's not all that. Odds are, this is where she intends to carry out her master plan." said Willow.

"12 tons of ANFO to booby trap a house doesn't sound very covert." said Jane.

"On the other hand, it created such a big crime scene that it would have taken weeks for the police to piece together enough of us to identify us. And even then the council might not have put it down to vampires or any mystical forces, it would have been considered outside their domain. Besides, Osama already congratulated the people that carried out the bombing." said Daria.

"I wonder what would happen if a major bombing occurs and both Al Qaeda AND Aryan Nations started fighting for credit?" asked Jane.

"They'd pick on each other and leave everyone else alone?" asked Willow.

"Yes, because that worked so well in Northern Ireland." commented Daria before continuing "Any other leads, anyone?"

No one added anything.

"Okay then, we need to physically locate Amy and her gang, unfortunately, she's seen everyone of us except Jane, who Drusilla has seen, we don't have anyone we can readily identify as being in her gang." said Daria.

"We have the cops." said Kennedy.

"There's that, Willow, can you hack the police computers and find out how many cops have failed to report in since last night?" asked Daria.

-

Quinn knocked on the door of the Deckler house and waited.

She and Sandi were seriously concerned about Tiffany.

Tiffany's dad answered.

"Is Tiffany in?" asked Quinn.

"She's in her room, is she alright? Just she seemed kind of, … different tonight." he said.

"I dunno, I'll ask her." said Quinn.

Quinn and Sandi headed upstairs to Tiffany's room and knocked.

"Yeah?" asked Tiffany from behind the door.

Quinn and Sandi poked their heads through the doorway, seeing Tiffany lying on her bed in camouflage trousers and a black tee shirt "Tiffany, can we talk?"

"Yeah, sure, come on in." she said.

-

"I hear you're trying to develop some magical ability." said Kennedy as she and Daria headed down the street. Kennedy was feeling for the presence of a powerful witch, which witches could apparently do. But that had the slight drawback of working both ways, Amy would know one of them was there. So each witch was accompanied by someone who would not trip Amy's senses to maintain surveillance while the witch heads away to phone everyone else to converge.

"Yeah, I've managed to achieve some telekinesis, great for opening doors, but not really that far above your standard muggle." said Daria.

Kennedy giggled at this and said "unfortunately that's a good thing in this instance"

"Yeah, I know. What's your take on the situation with Angel?" asked Daria.

"Well, … I am fascinated with the idea of a vampire with a soul, before we all went to Sunnydale, they were all evil, now it's just some."

"Whereas my experience ran opposite, I started off with Vampires being like anybody else, to learning that most vampires are missing a soul and their evil comes from that. I found that concept particularly strange since a lot of people with souls are just as evil." said Daria.

-

"So, you know anything about that stabbing at the park earlier this evening?" asked Quinn.

"Stabbing? … no, nothing" said Tiffany.

Quinn and Sandi looked at each other, then Sandi asked "perhaps those bodies were vampires?"

"They'd have turned to dust if they were." said Tiffany.

"Are you on something Tiffany?" asked Quinn.

"No, … not right now anyway" replied Tiffany.

Tiffany had remained where they had found her, staring at the ceiling looking spacey.

"Excuse us a minute." said Quinn, she then gestured to Sandi to follow her to the floors hallway.

When they closed the door, Tiffany decided she should try to ascertain what they thought her involvement in the deaths was.

"She looked stoned to you Quinn?" asked Sandi.

"Yeah, … you don't think she's doing meths or something do you?" asked Quinn.

"Well, she has to be doing something." said Sandi.

"What should we do about it?" asked Quinn.

"Call the cops?" suggested Sandi.

"That feels wrong." said Quinn.

"She killed two people, if she doesn't get help, she'll probably do it again." said Sandi.

"I just don't want to do that to her, there's got to be another way." said Quinn.

"Okay, we could wait for her to kill another bunch of people." said Sandi.

-

Quinn looked at the door again, then said "We could try another form of intervention, but we would need to play it just right. The first thing would be to get her off whatever she's doing, that would mean confining her so she can not access whatever it is she's using" said Quinn.

"Okay, we clean her out, then what?" asked Sandi.

"Well, … I dunno, but we might be able to come up with something by the time she's clean. What we need to do is get her to want to stay clean, otherwise when we release her, the same thing will happen all over." said Quinn.

"And if we can't think of anything?" asked Sandi.

"Then we'll hand her over to the police, I just don't like the way the police handle drug users, they go over the top and make things worse." said Quinn.

Sandi thought about that last point and said "Okay, we owe her to at least try, but how do you propose to capture her? She's super strong."

"Well, I suppose we'll have to spike her drink tomorrow, figure out an excuse for her being absent from school and home that will hold for a couple of weeks. We'll need a place we can take her." said Quinn.

"Okay, how about Jane's place?" suggested Sandi.

"Good call, we should head over there and set it up." said Quinn.

They headed off.

-

Tiffany ran as fast as she could, she had to avoid capture.

She headed out of town into the forest that surrounded Lawndale, figuring that anywhere inside Lawndale would get her captured.

Quinn and Sandi want to turn her in.

They should.

Yeah, that's right, Tiffany should go down for it.

And more, 'cause jail alone, … it's not like she'd be the one getting her head kicked in, is it.

She crossed a road and headed into the woods.

-

"WHAT THE FUCK? … Ohhhh, that bitch"

All the vampires looked at Amy.

"Right, you lot, get out there, turn right, tear that witch to shreds."

The vamps just stared at her.

"TODAY, ASSHOLES!"

They did as instructed.

-

Kennedy headed off to make the call as Daria headed on to a front yard across the street to watch the house.

"KENNEDY! GORILLA! 6 O'CLOCK!" shouted Daria.

Kennedy turned to see about 20 vamps leaving the house and heading for her, some headed to Daria who had pulled an Uzi … or similar machine gun, Kennedy wasn't sure, just it was a machinegun pistol of some kind.

Anyway, she pulled her stake and engaged as Daria unloaded her first clip into the vampires.

Kennedy didn't mention how that wouldn't keep, since A: Daria knew that, and B: kind of busy, but at the very least Daria would ease both their workloads.

Daria got through her second clip and then started using her sawn off to decapitate the vamps crowding around Kennedy, the last three eventually fucked off. Daria then pulled a stake herself and started killing the vamps she had shot earlier.

Kennedy joined her.

But then Amy emerged from the house and forced them onto the ground as some more vampires came out behind her and headed to Kennedy and Daria.

"You two just bought yourselves a bargain deal on pain." she said, throwing so much force at them that they could feel their hips, rib cages, and skulls start to flex.

An arrow took out one of the vamps, and Amy looked around, she then stopped what she was doing and disappeared from view.

Daria and Kennedy sat up.

Amanda and Jane (with a bow and quiver) were coming from one direction, and Willow was coming from another.

"You two okay?" asked Willow.

"Well, I was concerned I was overweight for a few seconds, but that feeling's gone now." said Daria.

"That house over there." said Kennedy.

They all got up and headed to it.

-

Amy called Drusilla and told her to get everyone out, and call her once they establish a new base. Then she headed off in search of a warlock, because apparently the prank on that slayer hadn't slowed them down at all.

She wandered the back streets in search of the local dealers place. She didn't know if she'd still have her first army when she was done taking Willow out of the picture, but she should still have her second army. The vampires on the thin blue line had all reported in, so- "AHA! GOTCHA!" she marched straight through the door, and ended up in a, …

"Whoa, … " Amy was expecting a dank looking flat, but this looked more upscale.

"You a customer, right?"

She turned to one of the goons in the big, white polished marble foyer with the twin staircases left and right, and various pictures of naked girls with lightning coming from their fingertips in expensive looking frames on the walls.

"Yeah, if you do dark magics" said Amy.

"Right, straight through there, cash only" said the goon.

-

The witches, ensouled vamp, slayer and watcher got another 8 vampires before they heard sirens.

Willow threw a translucent violet ball of energy at one of the fleeing vampires before doing a weather spell to create a load of fog.

Then they headed across the fence the vampires had crossed and headed back to base.

"What was that thing you threw at that vamp?" asked Daria.

"A transmutation spell, added two neutrons to every atom under the impact site, shouldn't have any trouble finding them now." said Willow.

"Neither will the atomic energy authority." said Daria.

-

Sandi and Quinn arrived at Jane's house.

Quinn knocked.

They waited.

"So, think we can trust Jane to go along with this?" asked Sandi.

"What do you, … oh, … well, I think it might patch things up between those two" said Quinn.

They saw Jane, Willow, Joy, Amanda and another girl enter the front yard.

"Quinn, Sandi." greeted Jane.

"Jane, we need to talk to you about something." said Quinn.

"Alright" they all entered "but make it quick, we're kind of in the middle of something." said Jane.

"It's about Tiffany." said Quinn.

"What about her?" asked Jane.

"She's, … earlier this evening, two people were killed, we think it was done by Tiffany, and when we visited her later, we found her to be, … she looked like she was on something" said Quinn.

"What?" asked Joy.

"I don't know who else to propose this to, but we don't want to get the police involved, and I know you two have a dispute-" said Sandi.

But Jane interrupted "Dispute's over, apparently I'm only good because my mom put my soul back in me. If she hadn't done that, I'd be out killing people, and what do you mean she killed two people?"

"Two bodies found at the edge of the park had been stabbed with a big round spike of some kind, y'know, like a stake?" said Quinn.

"Shit almighty, she accidentally, … Jane-" started Joy.

But Jane said "On it" as she picked up the living room phone.

"This 'on drugs' look you said she had, was it by any chance, an unfocussed stare and 'slightly stoned' speech pattern?" asked Joy.

"Well, yes, like that" said Quinn.

"She was in shock, I mean, … " said Willow.

"I hope she's not doing something-" started Joy.

But was interrupted by Jane saying "She's not there."

"Okay, we can't look for her and attack a nest of vampires with Amy Madison covering them, … Right, vamps first, Tiff later, Jane, grab your flamethrower, then everyone pile into my car, I'll grab some extra ammo." Joy said, heading to the basement.

Sandi and Quinn looked around them as the remaining girls headed outside.

"HEY, WAIT, WHAT ABOUT TIFFANY?" asked Quinn.

Willow and the other girl looked at them, but couldn't answer, so they headed back out.

Joy came up to them holding some sort of harness with a sawn off shotgun holster, and a load of shotgun rounds in loops around the waist and shoulder straps. She said "Sandi, Quinn, you two have known Tiffany much longer than any of us here, and since you two are not trained combatants, you two are the only people I can task with this. I want you to find Tiffany, assess her condition, stay with her, try to get her to come here, do not do anything that could alarm her. She ran away without coming here, she must think we all hate her."

"She ran away after we were there." said Quinn.

"We were discussing what to do about her drug habit, … Oh hell, what if she overheard?" asked Sandi.

"You two are still the best people to look for her, Sandi, either you or Quinn should take this, high explosive rounds. Any vamps approach you, shoot them in the neck, that'll decapitate them, they'll turn to dust." Daria said, handing Sandi the harness.

Sandi took it and held it saying "Explosive rounds? What if we get picked up?" asked Sandi.

Joy looked around, then she took off her coat, revealing several clips and a machine pistol stuffed in the waistband of her trousers. She handed Sandi her cardigan, and put her coat back on saying "That should go with one of your current ensembles, now go"

Sandi and Quinn looked at each other, then Sandi put on the harness followed by the cardigan, they then headed out, Daria waited for Jane to emerge from upstairs with her flamethrower.

-

"Television's all spotty" said one vampire.

"I think it's pretty" said Drusilla.

Shaun looked at it, saw a whole load of spots flashing all over the screen, spaced approximately 15mm apart. He said "Television's not on, move around to the side"

The vampire did so, and fewer dots appeared.

"You're radioactive, those dots are the result of gamma photons striking the phosphor dots on the screen, you feed off someone from Chernobyl or something?"

"How should I know?" asked the vamp.

"No, that's got to be hundreds of curies there, that's real fresh, whatever's in you, and you were turned within the last few weeks?" Shaun asked.

"That's right" said the vamp.

Amy appeared in the room.

"Boss, this guy's radioactive, it's like he got hit with a neutron bomb or something" said Shaun.

"What?" replied Amy.

"I'm, like, Chernobyl, or, … what's going on?" he asked.

"Probably the super friends." said Amy, thinking, then she said "Alright, you come with me, they haven't located us yet, and I have a gift for Willow."

"I guess vamps are immune to radiation, or this guy would be a puddle about now, but what about you boss?" asked Shaun.

"I got better endurance than normal humans, just stay here." said Amy, as she headed out with her radioactive vampire.

-

"I think I found them, continue this way." said Willow, pointing at their 12 O'clock.

Daria continued onwards.

"Okay, I feel her, she's, … crap, she must be in flight or something." said Willow.

"What? Like on a broom?" asked Jane, earning a smack on the back of the head from Kennedy, Jane then said "Jesus, take a joke."

"Right" said Willow, then she said "when we get some Pizza, we need to remember not to order any garlic bread."

The three witches giggled and Jane flipped them all off.

"Stop, right there." said Willow.

"That house?" asked Daria pointing at a well lit house.

"Yeah." said Willow.

"Okay, Kennedy, Willow, you two will enter the house and verify that we have in fact found the nest, Jane and I will cover both sides of the house make sure no one leaves." said Daria, handing Willow the Geiger counter.

They all deployed as ordered, Jane's flamethrower ready for use.

Willow and Kennedy entered through the front. Willow using telekinesis to open the door, Willow established the radioactive vampire was in the basement, and that the house owners where still alive (the effect that stops vampires from entering dwelling spaces without permission could be detected by some witches).

Kennedy went one way, Willow the other. They didn't consider it necessary for anyone to watch the stairs since Daria and Jane would enforce the killing zone outside.

The house was almost pristine, lived in, but by a family, not by a bunch of vampires.

Willow and Kennedy met around the back and they entered the basement.

Kennedy somersaulted down the stairs and found the vampire with the houses occupants, the houses occupants were tied up with ductape to four camping chairs, husband, wife, two daughters (8 and 12 yo approximately).

"Willow, hold your position" said Kennedy before going over to them, The vampire pulled a revolver and aimed it at one of the girls, that caused Kennedy to stop.

"Smart girl" said the vampire.

"Smarter than you" said Kennedy, she then chanted something and the room was filled with a brilliant white light, this caused the vampire to react by closing his eyes, his next feeling was one of getting a stake thrown through his heart.

"Kennedy?" shouted Willow.

Kennedy returned to the stairs and looked up at Willow, whose irises were black. As was her hair, and the now visible veins on her face, there was also a load of weird black and violet arcs emanating off of her.

Also, the presence of Amy was gone.

"Shit, … right, hang on" Kennedy pulled a knife and used it to free the man. She then gave him the knife so he could free the rest of his family and headed up to tend to Willow "Okay, I want to get you outside now, Okay?" asked Kennedy.

"Okay, okay, I can do that." said Willow, and they went out the back, where Jane was 3 metres from the left rear corner of the house. Kennedy then said "it was a trap, just the radioactive vampire, and Amy's gone"

-

"Right" Jane left to tell Daria.

"I, … I can't, … I, … … " Willow was struggling to focus herself.

Kennedy was unsure what to do.

Jane, Daria, and Amanda arrived in the back yard and Amanda walked over to Willow, she asked "What happened?"

"I didn't see it, when I went to help that family in the basement, something happened, then I felt Amy leave" said Kennedy.

"It was her, it was Amy." said Willow.

Amanda approached Willow and placed a hand on her back, chanting something.

Everyone watched in silence as Amanda tended to Willow.

Amanda then asked "better?"

"Yeah, thanks." said Willow.

"That case, we need to get going, you need to take the rest of the night off Willow?" asked Daria.

"Yes, that would probably be wise." said Willow, still feeling a little weird.

"Right, let's go." said Daria.

"Wait, vampire dust." said Kennedy heading back into the house.

She looked through the cupboards and found a plastic food container. She took that to the basement squeezing past the people coming out of it. She then picked up the dust telekinetically and moved it to the container.

She then headed back up stairs where Daria was checking the people for radiation.

"They're clean." said Daria.

"What are you talking about?" asked the man.

"We made the vampire radioactive hoping it would lead us to his nest, it instead came here, you wouldn't happen to have seen a woman with brown hair accompanying the vampire, would you?"

"Yes, she materialised behind me when I answered the door and made me invite the guy in, then they forced us all into the basement. He stayed, she disappeared, what's this about the vampire being radioactive?"

Daria pointed her Geiger counter at the container in Kennedy's hand, it was chucking out lots of curies "Kennedy, two things. One, hold that thing telekinetically or your hand will melt. Two, get that out of here, now"

"Right" said Kennedy, she held the tub telekinetically and headed outside.

"I don't know how long you were with the vampire, but I suggest you all take the day off, at worst, you'll all feel sore for a while. Increase your intake of foods known to reduce the possibility of the onset of cancer, consult your doctor if you have any doubts, now I gotta go" Daria then left.

The family members looked at each other in a state of confusion.

-

Tiffany heard some activity up ahead, she briefly wondered weather she wanted to investigate or move on.

She decided to investigate, not like she wanted to be alone with her thoughts in their current genre.

-

"We really shouldn't be out here" said Sandi.

Quinn and Sandi had been told by passers by that they saw an Asian girl in camouflage fatigues run into the woods, so that was where they were. Quinn had luckily brought a small flashlight.

"We got protection" said Quinn.

"Sure, if the vamps attack in groups of or less than two spaced about 15 seconds apart" said Sandi.

"I doubt Tiffany would want to approach any vampires if what Joy said was true, that was the reason she accidentally killed two people" said Quinn.

"Quinn, if Tiffany doesn't want to be found, and she's in the woods, presumably trained to hide, what possible chance do we have of finding her?" asked Sandi.

"I don't know, … I guess we should still try anyway." said Quinn.

-

Tiffany saw two flaming torches behind a bush, she approached the clearing.

The luminescence of the torches didn't light up much more than approximately 1m radius around the carriers, who were, … dressed in white robes with pointy hats and with a circle-cross-blood drop emblem on the breast.

'Aren't there any normal people camping out in the woods?' Tiffany thought.

She also noticed the vague shapes of other Klansmen in an arc at the other side of the clearing and the silhouette of a crucifix about 1/3rd the way in from her.

The torches reached the base of the cross, and suddenly the lack of light was alarmingly reduced, and Tiffany was fairly certain that if any of them looked, they could- one of the torch bearers looked right at her.

She froze.

Maybe he wasn't seeing her, and if she stayed still long enough- he pulled a berretta and aimed it at her shouting "DON'T EVEN THINK OF MOVING!"

Tiffany more than thought about it.

One back flip away from the bush prompted a shot, which she felt sting the underside of her left breast, the shockwave dropped below a painful level about halfway up. She ignored the injury, anticipating possibly getting dead if she stopped, and as soon as she was on her feet again, she headed back the way she had come at flat out buster speed. The second shot missed, the third shot struck her left buttock just behind the joint, causing her to yelp, but she was still able to move.

'Useful thing adrenaline' she thought as the forth and fifth shots sounded.

-

"Oh-crap-oh-crap-oh-crap-oh-crap" muttered Sandi as they heard shots from up ahead of them.

Quinn shone her flashlight towards the origin of the shots, but Sandi grabbed it off her, saying "YOU FUCKING INSANE OR SOMETHING?" as she turned it off.

"Sorry, just wondering where the shots are coming from."

They saw flashlights in the distance.

"What do we do?" asked Quinn.

"You're asking ME?"

"FOUND HER!" shouted someone, then there were more shots.

"Found her? I hope that's not Tiffany they're after" said Quinn.

-

"You okay now Willow?" asked Daria.

"Yeah, I'm getting better." said Willow, she was sat on the sofa, rocking back and forth, her eyes still black, but her hair was returning to it's proper colour.

"Okay, … " Daria walked off to the others and said "I'm considering calling a halt to the search. We're two people down, Amy knows we're after her and will probably avoid the nest from now on. We should instead concentrate on any cops that have been turned into vampires. We have the list, we take them out, it'll disrupt Amy's plans." said Daria.

"Unless the police vampires are a diversion." said Kennedy.

"Even if that is the case, it won't be very effective. There are only five, possibly six of us here, not a big piece of our force. They will be pinned down to their homes during the day. As for Amy, we need to prepare our own battlefield and drag her to it." said Daria.

"Okay, but what about Tiffany?" asked Kennedy.

-

Tiffany could feel the pain from her gunshot wounds now.

On the plus side, there were now more reasons not to move than to move, but but her ass and tit really hurt. She was sure that the shot to her ass bone had done something. She couldn't be sure what, only that she couldn't imagine an impact of that kind of energy being so benign as to not at least chip off fragments of bone.

Fortunately, she was able to get far enough out of sight of them to climb a really tall tree, and it was sufficiently leafy and knarled to hide her.

She was seeing Klansmen moving around down there looking for her.

Hopefully they would break off soon, but considering that someone would have to be incredibly sad to join one of these genocidal organisations to begin with, it looked more like she would be up that tree all night, possibly through a large portion of the day.

She would just have to wait as long as it took.

-

Sandi pulled her cell phone and dialled Jane's place.

There had been a load of noise and flashlights up ahead, but no gunshots for a while.

"Base of Lane." responded Jane.

Sandi whispered "Jane, it's Sandi, we followed some leads and we're in the forest just north west of town. We think Tiffany's here somewhere, we also think that she's being chased by an armed mob, there were shots, and people with flashlights are still moving around. They haven't found who they are looking for-" suddenly there was a bright light in their faces and someone saying "let's see those hands"

Sandi and Quinn raised their hands, looking slightly away from the flashlight and squinting their eyes.

"Identify yourselves" asked the stranger.

"You first." said Quinn.

"Sandi Griffin and Quinn Morgendorffer" Sandi quickly said, indicating which was which, hoping to defuse the situation.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for a friend," Sandi said, glancing around, one of the people off to the side was dressed in a white robe and pointy hat, Sandi then added "who is a blonde cheer leader with blue eyes who will one day bring great glory to the Aryan race." to hopefully further placate the genocidal psychopaths.

Someone then shouted "FOUND HER!"

-

Tiffany shielded her face with her hands as a number of flashlights were pointed at her.

She had seen one focus on the ground near the tree, then on the tree itself, so she must have been dripping enough blood to leave a trail, even if not enough for her to notice a drop in blood pressure.

Vampires, of course, would have found the tree a lot faster, but vampires she could deal with.

Racist goons with semiautomatic firearms, on the other hand, …

"Get down here." one of them said.

Tiffany hesitated, trying to think of some way she could possibly get out of this alive. They were too widely spread for her to win a hand to hand engagement.

Simultaneously, there was another gunshot, and an intense pain in her left ankle. The movement in response caused her to slip off the branch. She bounced awkwardly off two other branches on the way down, landing on her ass. The back of her head struck the ground real hard, and the whole area felt cold.

Her left ankle was numb. She could feel pressure on it when she let the weight of her leg rest on it. She imagined the whole area looked like burger meat.

Klansmen with flashlights and pistols of various descriptions crowded around her.

There was no way she was getting out of this alive.

Even if Daria and Jane were looking for her, they'd have to be insane to attempt to intervene.

Would they be that broken up about it?

She had run Jane out of town before establishing Jane had a soul all along, and she had made a really crap first impression on Daria with that interrogation, which, let's face it, served absolutely no purpose. Chasing that one vampire, she had probably let another 5 pig out on innocent people.

Plus the unnecessary torture had almost gotten Faith killed, and could have consequently killed all life on earth.

And, oh yes: Those two people in the park.

Not to mention those drugs she did to hide from reality.

She was never a good slayer, she had probably done more harm than good.

"Yeah, go on then, not like I'm good for humanity." she said.

"That'll happen, just, you interrupted our ceremony, so we feel obligated to give you a proper send off." said one of them.

There was another shot, her right hand felt like someone had driven a stake through it, Tiffany barely responded, not even moving her hand.

Two more shots, her other hand, and her right foot.

Someone stepped on her left ankle, that caused Tiffany to gasp, but she was too depressed to cry out.

There was another shot to her right arm and left leg, just above the ankle and wrist joints.

"What's that?" asked one of the Klansmen, sounding highly alarmed.

"Is that a twister?" asked another.

"No fucking way, we don't get twisters that far north." said another.

"There's another." said another Klansman.

Then there were screams and thuds.

Tiffany had no Idea what was going on, but felt an enormous disinterest in it.

She kept her eyes closed as all the mayhem occurred around her.

Then she felt something touch her wrists.

Her wrists began to feel better.

She opened her eyes.

She saw, …

"Willow?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm here, you're safe now." She moved to Tiffany's ankles and did the same thing.

Tiffany checked her hands, holding them in front of her face and flexing the fingers.

When Willow stood up again, Tiffany decided to get up.

Her ankles were also completely healed.

Willow then went to work on her injured breast and buttock.

Tiffany looked around at all the dead Klansmen.

"So, I guess you got here this evening?" said Tiffany.

"Yeah, Amy and me go back: used to be friends at one point, then she turned evil, tried to make me evil too. Then hit me with this guilt trip spell, and now she's moved onto some sort of big bad scheme."

Tiffany suddenly noticed that they were at the Lane house, and she felt her BP crash, she promptly collapsed.

"Tiffany?" Daria approached.

"Hi Daria, sorry about bunking off earlier." said Tiffany.

"Sandi called and said you were being chased by the Ku Klux Klan." said Daria.

"Yeah, I got shot a bunch of times by them too, but Willow took them out and healed me." Tiffany said as she sat up.

"Uhhh, she killed them?" asked Kennedy.

"Yeah, what I did was I conjured some tornadoes and golf ball sized hailstones, like a bunch of miniguns, except they shot ice instead of lead." said Willow, feeling kind of proud.

"Right, but now that's done, you'll need to stop for the rest of the night." said Daria.

"I know, I know, I gotta come back now." said Willow as she sat down.

"We're not supposed to kill humans though." said Kennedy.

"Neither are other humans, sounds like Willow used reasonable force, what do you think me and Jane would have had to do if we got there first?" asked Daria.

"Hmm" Jane seemed to lose herself in thought at the idea of dousing a load of genocidal fuckheads in gasoline and watching them slowly die from 3rd degree burns.

"Hang on, SANDI said I was being chased by the Ku Klux Klan?" asked Tiffany.

"Shit, that's right, where are they?" asked Daria.

-

The Klansmen, now in plain clothes, were driving Sandi and Quinn back to town.

They hadn't said a word except to feign agreement with them about the need to wipe out every non-Aryan race and every sexual minority off the face of the earth.

"Stop, that's my house." said Sandi.

The car pulled up to the kerb, and the two girls got out.

"Thanks for the lift." said Sandi.

"No problem." said the driver.

"Look after yourselves." said another, they all gave the girls a Nazi salute, which the girls returned.

They then drove off.

The girls slowly walking to the house, waving and smiling to them, counting the seconds until the cone heads were out of sight. Then they slouched forward, Quinn saying "Fucking hell, now I know how the Swiss feel."

Sandi saying "Yeah, I need a shower, a long, ice cold shower, lasting a couple of, like, … decades."

Sandi opened the door and the girls entered.

Sandi decided to call Jane's place on her cell phone as they headed up to Sandi's room. Sandi then told Quinn to phone her place, let her mother know she was sleeping over.

-

"Lane the not lame." said Jane as she picked up the phone.

"Sandi here, me and Quinn returned home, we don't know what happened with Tiffany, we got picked up by some Klansmen who gave us a lift to my place."

"Oh, Tiffany's back, Willow sort of, … teleported over there, killed the Klansmen, healed Tiffany, and teleported her back." said Jane.

"Ah, right, okay then, we done for the night?" asked Sandi.

"Yeah, thanks." said Jane.

"Good, 'cause pretending to be racists to avoid having the ever holy crap beat out of us, … yuck" said Sandi before hanging up.

Jane returned to the lounge and said "Sandi and Quinn are safe, and they weren't happy at having to pretend to be 'one of them' to get home safely"

"Damn, … I knew they could encounter some dangerous characters, but I didn't think there were any Klansmen this far north." said Daria.

"So, even running away, I still manage to hurt people." said Tiffany.

"Tiff, those bodies recovered from the park, they were at least 8 hours dead when they were found." said Daria.

"They were? … Then what were they?" asked Tiffany.

"Zombies. Must have been Amy reanimating the empty wrappers of a couple of her vampire's meals." said Daria.

"Amy, … I should have been helping." said Tiffany.

"Yes, … but I suppose I and those before me dropped the ball by not discussing the possibility of accidentally killing non-combatants, in spite of it happening enough times to warrant it, most recent event prior to tonight being Faith's killing of Sunnydale's deputy mayor." said Daria.

"Faith never mentioned that to me." said Tiffany.

"Not surprised, wasn't her proudest moment, set off a chain of bad decisions culminating in her attempt to get Angel to kill her." said Daria.

"She did mention torturing Wesley in order to piss off Angel." said Tiffany.

"She then spent some time in Jail, … Damn. … Tiffany, did anyone see you leave the location where the bodies were found?" asked Daria.

"There's Andrea." said Tiffany.

"Right, we'd better check the local news stations." said Daria.

"We should probably talk to Andrea." said Jane.

"And make us look evil, and probably get the police to look at us very closely? No, we do that, we get the police up our ass, we don't, Tiffany can hide here if a warrant is issued." said Daria.

"So what do we do then?" asked Jane.

"We need to take out any vampire cops, we should be able to do that tomorrow. Kennedy and I will do that, as for Amy, I'm not really sure what we can do, we might end up calling her out as a result of our dusting her vampire cops" said Daria.

"That would be a problem with Willow out." said Kennedy.

"Willow? That magic Amy used on you, is that the same stuff Rack was dealing?" asked Jane.

"Yes" said Willow.

"How'd Amy handle it without getting hooked? I mean, she wants to rule the planet, she can't do it while hooked, can she?" asked Jane.

"Well, we don't know for sure what she's after. But yeah, succumbing to an addictive substance or energy would not be helpful." said Daria.

"When you get to a sufficient skill level, you can compartmentalize the energy and carry it around until you decide to put it somewhere." said Willow.

"Any of you able to do that?" asked Daria of all three witches.

"I can." said Amanda.

"What about those portal thingies, like the one that girl almost got sucked through?" asked Kennedy.

"That was Winifred, if you mean that Sick Sad World with the stage and the extra dimensional tentacles" said Daria.

"Oh, … well, what of it?" Kennedy asked again.

-

Winifred was showing her parents around her lab when the phone rang.

"Excuse me" she said, before going to her desk and picking it up "practical sciences"

"There's a 'Joy Merryweather' calling for you from Lawndale." said Harmony.

"I don't know a Joy Merryweather." said Winifred.

"Okay, you want to talk to her anyway?" asked Harmony.

"Yeah, put her through." said Winifred.

"Fred?" asked the familiar voice.

"Daria?" asked Winifred.

"Nope, just her doppelganger." replied Joy.

-

"Those are pretty." said Drusilla, as she moved her hand towards the silver coated plastic discs.

Shaun grabbed her wrist to stop her touching the discs and said "they also need to be sterile for this to work."

The two vampires had basically walked into Lawndale College and killed everyone in the various workshops they now used.

"Right, they are the guts of your baby."

"Making me hungry."

"Hmmmm, I'll find some lovely lambs." said Drusilla as she started off.

"As long as they're human lambs."

Amy materialised in front of Drusilla and asked "what have you two been doing?"

Shaun looked over his shoulder and said "making a weapon."

"Out of bits of plastic and, … other bits of crap?" asked Amy.

"Yeah, out of bits and plastic and other bits of crap arranged in a way that causes lots of damage." said Shaun.

"Lots of damage? … Okay, how exactly will this cause lots of damage?"

"By exploding." said Shaun.

Amy rolled her eyes.

"And, in the process, committing around 0.2 of it's mass to energy." he continued.

Amy blinked a couple of times and said "mass to energy, … as in, … you making antimatter?"

"No, antimatter is less stable than magic, no. This will use lithium hydride. It'll fuse lithium 7 with hydrogen, starting it electrically. I know your primary plan was to be a little more subtle, but you might need a plan B with a little more force, especially if the government becomes aware of the situation and comes after us with mechanised and air forces. I can get my prototype to work, we can take over a factory, order in the right machines, start mass production, what do you reckon?" asked Shaun.

"I reckon I should have been consulted before you started on this, but I see no reason to stop you. So keep at it, and let me know when you are ready to test your prototype." Amy said, she then dematerialised.

"I would so love to know the physics that allows magic to work." said Shaun as he returned to his task.

-

Daria opened the front door of their next address and entered, Amanda having confirmed that the householder was dead.

There were some bizarre effects of the mystical laws of the universe. Vampires can not enter a dwelling without the dwellers permission, that was what the witches were detecting.

Kennedy was working addresses on the other side of town, and Willow was out of the game in order to come off the dark magics Amy had thrown at her. And Tiffany needed to be in school or her parents would start to get even more antsy then they were when she had apparently climbed out her bedroom window without hearing of anything being wrong.

As for the deaths of the Klansmen, it looked like the police were having serious trouble figuring out what had caused it. They hadn't released anything, beyond a shooting involving upwards of 12 people.

No ballistics to match to anything else, but there might be the possibility that Tiffany's footprints could be matched to those found at the dump site of the bodies. And the projectiles in the ground under where she had fallen and her blood prints in the ground would mean that Tiffany's DNA would be on CODIS by now.

But they were looking for a corpse most likely, or someone with a number of gunshot wounds to their extremities.

She entered the vampire's bedroom and placed the crucifix on the vampires shoulder.

The skin underneath smoked and the vampire woke up.

At this point Daria staked him.

She then left the room.

Her shoes had been modified by the addition of a layer of latex paint to the soles, she would peel those off and incinerate them later.

So far, Amy hadn't shown herself, but Daria wasn't going to discount that from happening. If she did, then Amanda would have a chance. Kennedy would probably get her ass kicked, better than Daria she may be, but she's still new to this. Right now, Amanda was their most powerful witch.

-

Quinn and Sandi sat next to Tiffany in class as they normally did. Stacy's (Illyria's actually, but anyway) seat had not been filled since she apparently stayed in LA to fight Wolfram and Hart (Which Daria had described as a multidimensional entity out to corrupt the world).

Sandi had dropped by Jane's house to return the sawn off shotgun and ammunition to Joy Merryweather. They met Tiffany there, and Tiffany said she was all right, but her cheer seemed fake.

As class ended, they headed out to the lunch room and they met Andrea.

"Hi Tiffany, can we talk?" asked Andrea.

"Sure" said Tiffany, at the same time Sandi said "No".

The two girls looked at each other.

Quinn said "trying to lose the snobbish personas, remember?"

"Alone, or with my, … " friends? … Tiffany wasn't sure of her status with them right now.

"Err, … your call I guess" said Andrea.

"We know what happened last night." said Quinn, guessing what she wanted to talk about.

"Okay." said Tiffany, nodding towards the cafeteria.

-

"After you saved me from those, … " said Andrea, wondering what the creatures actually were.

"Vampires." said Tiffany.

"Vampires, and we separated, I encountered two bodies and some cops. I told them I didn't see anyone leaving the scene when they asked. I was wondering, did you, … I mean, I understand it was, like an accident or something. … It was an accident, right?" asked Andrea.

Tiffany seemed to go pale, even though she knew full well what Andrea was going to talk about. Tiffany finally said "Yes and no, … I thought they were vampires, I staked them, then I realised they weren't. But it turns out that they were zombies, sent by some witch to fuck with my head, and it's working."

"Zombies? Wouldn't those have been out to eat someone's brains?" asked Andrea.

"No, zombies are remote control corpses, they only eat brains if their zombie master tells them to. In this case, they were told to come at me and lie down when staked." said Tiffany.

"Right, … there's something going down, isn't there?" asked Andrea.

"Yeah, the witch that reanimated the corpses, she's trying to build an empire. She's building an army of vampires." said Tiffany.

"Be a very nocturnal empire, … the sunlight cliché is true, right?" asked Andrea.

"Yep, as is holy water, religious symbol, stake, reflections, and invite." said Tiffany.

"Right, … That librarian, looks a lot like Daria." said Andrea.

"Yes she does." said Tiffany.

No one said anything for a while.

Andrea then said "Anyway, thanks for saving me." and got up and left.

-

"Wolfram and Hart, Angel speaking." answered Angel.

"Hi, I'm Joy Merryweather, Tiffany Deckler's watcher, I was wondering if you could spare Illyria for a couple of days, possibly a week?" asked a familiar voice.

"Joy Merryweather? … You want Illyria?" asked Angel.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" asked Joy.

"No problem, I'll send her over to you" said Angel, happy to have the demon off his hands.

-

Amy materialised in the room and walked over to the bed. She lifted the quilt and nodded at the dust, getting more and more annoyed as this was the 10th vampire cop she had found dusted. Willow and the fucking slayers were annihilating her fucking army!

Who else would it be?

"Of course, you realise, that this means war." she said, as she dematerialised.

-

"Oh, hey boss, we're about to test the prototype." said Shaun.

"Good, because we're going to need your wonder weapons after all." said Amy.

"Something happened?" asked Shaun.

"Yeah, Superfriends took out our share of the thin blue line, and I want to blow them up." said Amy.

"Okay" he turned to one of his assistants and said "pack up the moulds. If we're successful, we're going to draw a lot of attention."

-

"You're heading to Lawndale?" asked Spike as he and Winifred approached the elevator Illyria was entering.

"I am." she replied.

"Then come with me, looks like trouble's brewing." he entered the elevator with her and her armed escort.

The doors closed and Illyria asked "what is your mission?"

Spike answered "We're to investigate an EMP that happened there, … Fred?"

"The pattern didn't look mystical, and it happened on a college campus the same time as an explosion. No radioactivity has been detected, so I've been tasked with investigating the incident." said Winifred.

"Radioactivity, I understand that to be the name you give to the occurrence of highly ionizing radiation. What is this EMP you speak of?" asked Illyria.

"Electromagnetic pulse, it accompanies high energy explosions such as those caused by nuclear weapons, except this explosion was well below the minimum I would have expected. Stuff this small, it's usually something mystical" said Winifred.

"Perhaps Joy Merryweather will know something." said Illyria.

"Excuse me, Joy Merryweather?" asked Spike.

"Yes, … I detect amusement from you, why is this?" asked Illyria.

-

Willow flicked through the various channels trying to find something to distract her from her magical cravings, when Jane walked through.

"How's it going there." asked Jane.

"Quite badly, I can't find anything on. And I feel like I'm going to go nuts." Said Willow.

"Cravings, tell me about it" said Jane as she sat next to Willow.

"Who sired you anyway?"

"Sired?"

"Turned you into a vampire" clarified Willow.

"Oh, this guy I met, brought him home, fucked him. We drank each others blood, just seemed like a fun thing to do. Then I woke up with haemoglobin cravings and no reflection, and that's one of the things that's gotten Daria excited." Said Jane.

"She's a Science nerd?" asked Willow.

"History, but her interests are well rounded. … In academia anyway" said Jane.

"And you seem to live for art." Said Willow.

"I'm thinking of getting into making swords, now that they are the tools of our trade. I'm fascinated with the manufacturing techniques for swords, I wanna see if it's possible to apply them to those Klingon swords" said Jane.

"Fold or twist?"

"I think Fold would be better for them, since it would make it easier to forge weld the components together" said Jane.

"Huh?" asked Willow.

"Well, the-" started Jane.

But Willow interrupted with "No, Amy, she's here." there was a noise downstairs.

Willow teleported out of the room.

Jane ran to the source of the noise.

-

Willow materialised at the same time Amy disappeared to find Daria unconscious.

Willow checked Daria's life signs. She was extremely annoyed at having to use her still tainted magic, but she used it to wake Daria.

"Willow?" asked Daria.

Jane then entered the basement.

Willow helped Daria to her feet.

"Daria? What happened?" asked Willow.

"Amy, she 'ported in with some metallic cylinder and knocked me out" said Daria.

"This metallic cylinder, what did it look like?" asked Willow.

Daria pointed to a metallic cylinder on the pottery turntable and said "like that."

There was a knock on the door.

It occurred to Willow that the device could be some kind of bomb, so she placed a shield around it and said "You two get out, I'll see if I can defuse this"

Willow started approaching the device when it exploded within the shield.

There was no report because of the shield, but it was bright, and hot, and there was a crackling noise. Willow had to put her hand in front of her eyes as she looked for a welding mask, but suddenly realised she was on fire, so she first teleported the shield and its contents from this dimension then she put a shield over herself to kill the flames.

She heard a hissing noise, but was unable to see. She healed her eyes first and saw the room was black except for the dull red of the pottery table and some glowing embers on the rafters immediately above the table.

Daria produced and activated a flashlight and Jane went to the consumer unit. Jane was unable to get the main switch to latch, she said "Someone unplug the turntable"

Willow did this telekinetically and Jane restored power to the house.

Amanda came down the stairs and looked at the remains of the turntable and fumed "Amy did this?"

"Yep" said Daria.

"Okay, that case, she's dead every way possible." said Amanda.

The Willow turned to her and Amanda immediately set about healing Willow. She separated the clothes from the flesh underneath and reduced the damage to 1st degree burns, but she said "I keep doing this I won't have much left for Amy."

"I can do the rest." said Willow.

They then left the basement.

"What was that thing?" asked Jane.

"Any mystical vibes from it?" asked Daria.

"No." said Willow.

"Then my guess would be a nuke." said Daria.

"That was too small to be a nuke." said Willow.

"There was too much energy for it to be chemical, all that heat coming off it. Besides, look at your clothes"

Both Jane and Daria's clothes had been bleached where they had been exposed to the light. Willow's had been burnt off around the front, which would look sexy if it weren't for all the burns.

"Ultra violet, … how come I'm not a pile of dust?" asked Jane.

"Sun has different mystical properties to nuclear weapons." said Daria.

Tiffany and Kennedy entered from the back of the house. Kennedy took one look at Willow and asked "what's going on?"

"Amy, tried to nuke us, Willow got badly burned, we'll need to get those looked at." said Daria.

"No, I can heal the burns myself, just get that bitch will you?" said Willow, as she accepted a towel from Amanda to cover the areas where her clothes got burned off.

"Sure thing Willow." said Daria, heading back to the basement.

Trent entered the room with Spike, Winifred and Illyria.

"Red? What happened?" asked Spike.

"A nuke, apparently." said Willow.

"When?" asked Winifred.

"Just now in the basement." said Willow.

"But, the house and the neighbours houses are still here." said Winifred.

"I used a shielding spell to contain it, then it went off. It was the size of a 440ml can of beer."

"That's too small for a nuclear weapon." said Winifred.

"No it is not." said Illyria.

"Did they even have nuclear physics in your day?" asked Spike.

"In order to cause enough neutrons to hit the fuel nuclei, you need enough of them in a tight enough space to-" started Winifred.

But Illyria interrupted with "The process you are referring to is nuclear fission, it uses elements heavier than Iron that release energy when split"

"So the device we're looking for uses fusion?" asked Daria as she emerged from the basement, putting her jacket over her weapons harness.

"Daria?" asked Winifred.

"No, Joy Merryweather." said Daria.

"No, Daria." said Illyria.

"No, Joy Merryweather." said Daria, nodding at Illyria, who took it as a signal to go along with Daria's new name.

"As you wish." said Illyria.

"Okay, but getting back to the device: Do you have any idea how much energy is needed to initiate fusion?" asked Winifred.

"I do, but I am unfamiliar with your units of measurement." said Illyria.

"Right, and by the way, a Hydrogen bomb is even bigger than a tactical nuke, so-" started Winifred.

"The device you described sounds like an electrically powered detonator. It probably fires a burst of the particles you refer to as electrons at a crystal composed of the atoms you refer to as Lithium and Hydrogen." said Illyria.

Winifred thought about this and then slapped herself on the forehead "OF COURSE! Then you'd only need a Marx generator and some sort of barrel to direct the electrons into the crystal. It would be difficult to condense a Marx generator into such a small device, but it's possible."

"Great, we know how she made it, now let's find her and take her out." said Daria.

"So, plan anyone?" asked Kennedy.

"Yeah" said Daria, before launching into an explanation.

-

The group of vampires lead by Robert entered the alley as they headed out to find new recruits.

This was cut short when they saw an Asian girl in combat fatigues run at them. The girl threw something at them from 15 metres away, it exploded about a metre over their heads and showered them with a burning liquid which they accidentally breathed in as the girl drop kicked one of them, this knocked over two more of the group, the rest then started to get a clue.

The girl picked up Robert and used him as a club to smack the other vampires around before throwing him hard through a fence. She then produced a couple of stakes and went about dusting the rest of them.

By the time Robert was awake enough to get up, he crept to the hole in the fence and peeked around. He then saw Jack at the mouth of the alley looking left and right, he then turned and ran to Robert.

"That a slayer?" he asked.

"Yeah, I managed to break her arm, but then she got away" said Jack.

"Right, we'd better return to base, no way we're turning people in this state." said Robert as he slowly got to his feet.

-

Amy materialised in the new base, a factory they had taken over. The place was rigged for working with plastics to make novelty items, some of which used microelectronics to command light patterns, this turned out to be perfect for what Shaun wanted to do, it would only take a few modifications to an unused room in order to start churning out nuclear ordnance.

Shaun was going over some designs for nuclear artillery, these would be the size of a light antitank weapon. Some vampires were out now procuring black powder and steel pipes. The factory included a machine shop that Shaun had some vampires working in. They were making tools that would crimp the steel pipes they were using for motors to form rocket nozzles, and other items for some sort of explosive activated battery. Half the science went over Amy's head, but the essence was that the end product would shoot a bomb equivalent in energy to 1T of TNT at whatever they wanted gone.

She had asked Shaun about laser weapons, but Shaun said it was unlikely he could come up with anything that would be better than the current generation of machineguns. He said he'd have a go and see if he could.

Amy heard a commotion downstairs. She teleported down and saw a bunch of vampires brawling. She separated them and asked "What's going on here?"

"That's not Jack." one of the vampires said.

"Sorry, my nose has been numb since we encountered the slayer." said another.

'Jack', who the other vampires were looking at, stepped forwards and said "that grenade she used must have fucked up my emissions."

"It didn't affect Robert." said one of the vampires.

Amy tried to probe the vampire magically to figure out what was going on, but he felt different to a vampire.

"What are you?" asked Amy.

"Well, I'm a vampire" said Jack.

Amy walked around and saw his reflection in the window "a vampire with a reflection?" she asked.

Jack shrugged and said "I can not replicate that effect."

Amy tried to grab Jack's likeness telekinetically, but was unable to affect him. She said "my magics have no effect on you, looks like we're coaxing answers the old fashioned way." she signalled for the vampires to grab Jack's likeness and move follow her.

She soon felt the presence of another witch "Amanda Lane" she tried to locate her, but with no success.

She picked up a handy screwdriver and made an attempt to push it into the intruder's shoulder, the attempt failed when the intruder kicked her across the room, and set about slaying her army.

She picked up a fire extinguisher, and ran for the intruder about to smack him over the head. But the intruder sidestepped, removing the extinguisher and using it to ram her into the pillar between two of the windows. The ribs where the extinguisher's base had struck were fractured, and Amy's head swam from the pain. She looked over at the intruder who dropped whatever disguising spell it was using to become a leather clad demon girl with blue mottled skin and blue/brown hair in pigtails, looking like a short gothic Brittany spears. She was about to bring the extinguisher down on her head when Amy 'ported out.

-

Shaun and Drusilla had just completed the first 6 warheads when Amy 'ported in, She was in serious pain. She said "We're under attack." she then walked up to them and teleported them somewhere else. She said "rebuild my army, and equip it. You have the Email address and password, keep checking it or you will lose it." before grabbing four of the warheads (Shaun had explained how the fuses would detonate the warhead 6 seconds after activation, which she could do magically) and teleporting back to the factory.

-

The vampires on the 3rd floor of the factory (it was a 3 story rectangular building that looked like any office building from the outside) were surprised when a female vampire with a gaudy flamethrower and a blonde male vampire with a mundane military green flamethrower entered and cooked the place.

-

The vampires on the 2nd floor were surprised by the entrance of two female nerds tooled with submachine guns, and two more girls with stakes entered through the emergency exits.

The girls with the guns incapacitated the vampires, the other two finished them.

Then Amy materialised in the room and threw two of the nuclear weapons at them. Kennedy failed to notice this, but Daria saw it, she telekinetically threw the warheads back the way they came.

It was far enough to stop the four girls getting vaporised, but not enough to stop the compression wave from throwing them out of the windows at the end of the building. They only just managed to grab the window sill, and the other end of the building promptly collapsed.

Then two more explosions closer to them but on the floor above them went off. They weren't hit by any of the shrapnel, but the concrete vapours that were blown down through the hole burned the backs of the four pairs of hands on the sill.

Everyone climbed back in. The floors and walls were so hot that the girls were further burned when they climbed back in. They quickly stood up and headed to the stairs, wanting to be out of there before their shoes got too hot. The fact that they were walking into a crater to get there was slightly worrying, as was the fact the centre was glowing a dull red.

Illyria walked onto the floor and said "Amy teleported out before I could kill her. What has happened here?"

"Amy teleported in and started throwing fireworks." said Daria.

"So where is she now?" asked Kennedy as she joined them.

"On the roof." came Amanda's voice in their heads.

They all headed upstairs.

-

Amy glared at Amanda as they stood on the larger surviving section of roof, still nursing her busted ribs.

"This is not what Magic is for." said Amanda.

"Bite me, or better yet, … " Amy conjured a ton of rattlesnakes over Amanda's head.

Amanda Telekinetically threw the snakes aside, saying "you are weak of power and of will."

"I can still kick your ass." said Amy. She then conjured a fireball and threw it at Amanda, who absorbed it into her hand. Amanda then conjured an anvil over Amy's head, but Amy threw that off the building.

Amy tried to figure out a way to engage Amanda, who was clearly extremely powerful.

Suddenly Amy felt something hit her and she has a head rush. She turned around seeing Kennedy, the demon hunter, the Asian slayer, the blue mottled demon with the pigtails, and a nerd she never met before standing in a line.

The energy was vaguely familiar. She started "What do you-" but was interrupted.

"Klyv mat chyvma, klvma chyt" said Daria.

Amy noticed the floor about half a metre in front of her opening into a portal, it sucked at her. She was about to teleport out when she heard Daria say "Catch". She looked up and caught the object, a red grenade. It exploded before she could think to throw it back, and she felt a searing pain and a bright yellowish light engulf her.

Then she fell through the portal.

-

Daria looked at the others on the roof and asked "we done?"

"We are." stated Illyria.

"Peachy" Daria said. Then she looked around and asked "where's Jane and Spike?"

Suddenly Jane and Spike burst through the door to the roof ready to incinerate something. Spike asked "What's left?"

"Nothing" replied Daria, she then said "we should-"

-

Willow was surprised to hear Daria say "-get out of-" and turned to see the group had materialised in the lounge beside her.

Daria then looked around at her new surroundings and said "Yeah, … this should work"

They also noticed that the burns were healed.

"Right, I need to get some sleep now, all that magic wiped me out." said Amanda as she headed up stairs.

"Hmm, a pity we couldn't get our hands on one of those nukes." said Spike.

"I can help you design them" said Illyria.

"Yeah? … Looks like we might have a use for you after all then." said Spike.

"We shouldn't do it at the law firm, I'll see if I can get us a workshop that can not be monitored by them." said Winifred.

Illyria turned to Daria and asked "Do you need me for anything else?"

"I think we're done for now, thanks for your help Illyria, it was greatly appreciated"

"Your appreciation is irrelevant."

"Damn Amiga, Blue makes even you look sociable." said Jane.

"Bite me." Said Daria

"Really? Thanks" said Jane, as she vamped out.

"Real cute." said Daria, who headed to her room.

"I should get home." said Tiffany, she headed out.

"Where'd you send her?" asked Willow.

"Amy?" asked Winifred, at Willows nod, she said "somewhere really nasty. Same place I sent my physics professor when I found out it was him who sent me to Pylea."

"Sweet" said Willow "She deserves it after all the shit she put me through. I'm still having to avoid spell casting and it's driving me nuts."

Kennedy walked up to her and said "let's see what we can do about that shall we?". She then sat down and started kissing Willow, feeling her up.

Jane looked put off while Spike watched with a boner.

And Illyria looked bored.

"Well, I think I'll just go to bed now before I see something that really weirds me out." said Jane, heading up stairs.

Spike looked up at her and asked "a bit early, innit?"

Jane looked back and said "well, what else is there?"

"We could go out and kill things." said Spike.

"Now you're talking." said Jane as she returned to the ground floor and grabbed a stake.

"I believe I will also join you." said Illyria, who picked up another stake.

Winifred looked from the door to the lesbians, to the door again, and then headed upstairs.

-

Daria was starting her report when she heard a knock.

"Yeah?" she asked.

Winifred poked her head around the door and asked "I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

Daria gestured for her to grab a seat.

Winifred sat down and asked "how is it you can have such a rapport with Illyria after what I heard she did to you?"

"Because it was what Tiffany was doing to me that gave her the idea. Tiffany was doped up on something and was chasing Jane, unaware at the time Jane had a soul or how frivolous her pursuit of Jane was. Then when I was released after Illyria was convinced I had no information for her, and she had just abducted Willow. Faith and Tiffany weren't exactly sympathetic. So when they showed up again, and my sister distracted them, I got out and set a trap for them.

Good thing it failed, because if I had succeeded, Illyria would have blown a massive hole in the world and dislodged it from it's orbit. The moon would also have been affected, it's wonky orbit would have caused additional problems, I almost killed all life on earth with my wrath." Said Daria.

"And that brings you close to Illyria because, … ?" prompted Winifred.

"It doesn't, in fact, I was pretty mad at her for the two weeks of my suspension from school. But I now had this reaction to my anger that it could have disastrous consequences. So when Illyria showed up in New York in the middle of us planning to extract you from that hell dimension, it occurred to me to ask her if she could help, and to recruit her if she could." Said Daria.

"Do you really believe she can ever be a force for good?" asked Winifred.

"Possibly, … the girl's a child in this world, and I don't just mean her shell, she's starting from scratch. In order to gain any power, she needs to earn the loyalty of those around her, I think she understands that, she also wants Wolfram and Hart gone, in every dimension they occupy. If she can get them off our planet, it may be possible to keep them that way long enough for us to become strong enough in force to harass them from earth until all dimensions are free of them." Said Daria.

"A doozy of a challenge." said Winifred.

"It will keep her on our side for the time being. I just hope it doesn't come to a case of our knife in her back first." Said Daria.

"Hmm" said Winifred.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Daria said "So, you did physics, right?"

"Yeah, still do in fact, most people would say magic has nothing to do with physics, but it's a part of the universe, so it's included"

They launched into a conversation about the physics of magic.

-

Illyria partook in the violence as Spike and Jane engaged the large formation of half-breeds in the cemetery, she had briefly accessed Stacy's memory when in response to Spike's question of "you up for it?", Jane said "in response I'm gonna have to say, MORTAL KOMBAT!", the memory was linked to a computer game that simulated a pair of combatants without giving the players much real insight into how to carry out a fight.

Jane had run in with Spike a couple of seconds behind and they started fighting immediately.

Illyria joined in and the ensouled half breeds found themselves standing around with nothing to do as Illyria engaged the remaining hostile half-breeds on her own.

"No way we're going to keep up with her" said Spike.

"Unless we have a witch speed us up." said Jane.

Illyria eventually finished the group and returned to Spike and Jane saying "I will find more enemies to kill. Are you interested or would you two like to act on your mutual lust?"

That drew "Hey"s from both of them, but they looked at each other.

"No live sperm, immunity to STDs, Wadd'ya think?" asked Spike.

"I think we need to find a nice soft grave to have sex on." said Jane.

Illyria nodded and headed off.

-

"Tiffany?" asked Mr Deckler.

"Yeah?" asked Tiffany.

"Where have you been?" asked Mr Deckler.

"Usual: Park, Zen, town centre, here, why, what's up?"

"Tiffany, some terrorists blew up a factory tonight, what if they also do kidnapping?"

"They touch me, I guess, I'll just have to, make them envy the dead, I want to get some sleep now, we done?"

Mr Deckler finally said "go to your room"

After he heard the door close, he returned to the living room and sat next to Mrs Deckler. He switched on the news, adjusting the volume so it would drown out a whispered conversation.

"I'm getting seriously worried about her, and I don't think the direct approach is going to work" said Mr Deckler.

"I hate that we might have to do this." said Mrs Deckler.

"I know, I just want to get rid of those dreams where Tiffany's stabbing people at random because she's imagining they're vampires or some other delusion." said Mr Deckler.

-

End.


	4. Living Dead Girls 4: Fighting Machine

Constraints: follows 'Living Dead Girls 3: Baptism Of Fire', occurs during and after 'Not Fade Away'.

Synopsis: Tiffany comes back wrong from her holiday.

Living Dead Girls 4: Fighting Machine.

Content: Violence, some nudity, lots of death.

Legal: Daria belongs to MTV, Angel and Buffy belong to mutant enemy, The Bill and Ultimate Force belong to ITV, and I'm trusting http/ to steer me right when it comes to conventional nuclear weapons, also Dervish, Brother Grimace, Roentgen and Ranger Thorne helped me with this, the Bush Speech was written by Brother Grimace because my one sucked.

-

The hardest part about using a sword was moving her feet correctly, because the force to accelerate the sword had to go somewhere, but Daria was getting the hang of it. She had already gotten Tiffany to use it, and because of her existing proficiency with martial arts, she could pick it up in about 2 days. But Daria was still having to get her swings right, so she was still practicing with her katana in the back yard of the Lane house.

Jane was also practicing, but had been practicing since Tiffany and Andrew had returned to Lawndale.

Daria had also gotten her automatic shotgun, a USAS 12 (with 20 round drums), the weapon looked like a mutant M16 crossed with a tommy gun, she had found it of use when picking off vampires from a vantage point (this would be to back up Tiffany in the event that they encountered a larger enemy formation then they could handle). But she knew that it would be useless if her position got overrun and Jane wasn't there with her flamethrower to maintain a defensive perimeter. She did have her Mac in the event she needed to incapacitate a lot of them, but she would be hard pressed to change the clip in the middle of a fur ball, even if the next one was taped to the one she was already using. This had been obvious to her from the start, so she had been training to use the sword ever since.

Daria checked her watch "where is she?"

Jane looked over at her and said "I dunno, you don't think she scored some collateral damage again, do you?"

"Statistically that's rare. Slayers can sense vampires, even Buffy didn't experience that many fur balls in Sunnydale. I should call her," said Daria, she headed inside.

-

The phone rang, Tiffany picked up and answered "Hello?"

"Hey Tiff, how's it going?" asked Daria.

"Sorry, wrong number," said Tiffany, and she hung up.

-

"Nuke?" suggested Winifred.

"How?" asked Angel.

"Just shoot the bastard," said Spike.

"Okay, once again, Civus Vail, extremely powerful wizard, he'll sense us coming a mile off," said Angel.

"I appear to be unreadable by Witches, possibly other mystics, I also seem to be immune to the usual spells, I will … Nuke, Civus Vail," said Illyria, once again curious about the use of slang words such as 'Nuke'.

"See, sorted, who's next?" asked Spike.

"Gunn."

"Yo."

"Your friend Senator Brucker has a campaign office in west LA, you already know she's pure hell spawn, and tends to surround herself with vampires," said Angel.

Gunn pumped his fist triumphantly and said "I was hoping it'd be vamps, I Haven't dusted nearly enough this year."

"Spike-" started Angel.

Spike interrupted saying as he stood up "Right, first off, I'm not wearing any amulets, no bracelets, broaches, beads, pendants, pins or rings."

"Fine, all you need is a rattle," said Angel.

"Ah, the baby."

"And a legion of the Fell brethren. I want the kid returned to his mother, and the foster family dismembered."

"Done and done."

"Archduke Sebassis has over 40000 demons under his command, the other members of the council fear him, he's a key player, so he's mine. Wesley, Fred, Izzerial and three friends dine together almost every night," said Angel.

"Do they eat anything that goes with lead?" asked Wesley.

"Drive by?" asked Winifred.

"Still got my bike somewhere," said Wesley.

"Which I can't drive," said Winifred, ecstatic at the thought of being the killer on this mission.

"Uzi or MP5?" asked Wesley.

"I think, … the MP5 tonight, the MP5SD2, with subsonic rounds, been wanting to try it since we took over that place," said Winifred.

"Alright then, moving on, Lorne-"

"Uh, I'm not a fighter Angelwings, I never had the stomach for it, Looks like I'm your weak link."

"I just need you to back up Lindsey."

"I still can't believe you brought him in," said Wesley.

"He's a part of this, it'll be as dangerous for him as it will be for everybody else on our team," said Angel.

-

"So, I told the watchers council what's up, and we discussed weather or not to recall me, because if Tiff's out, then there are other slayers that need my attention," said Daria.

"Slayers may not be that mobile, but you watchers sure are," said Jane.

"It's not unheard of for potential slayers to never come to the attention of the Watchers Council, and there are some cases where contact is impossible to make anyway. Some countries restrict the freedoms of women so much that any watcher trying to make contact would either get themselves killed, or themselves and the slayer killed. Other situations that are more recent are where potentials are in the police or armed forces, that makes contact neigh impossible since we'd come off as stalkers to the cops or would have almost no access at all."

"But now all slayers are active, those who are in the police and armed forces will have found their jobs suddenly easier," said Jane.

"Except for the sock parties thrown by jealous co-workers," said Daria.

"And how long are they going to live after doing that to a slayer?" asked Jane.

"And how long will the slayer remain in the army when half her battalion has been transferred to the morgue?" asked Daria.

"Hmm, good point," said Jane.

-

"Ready to go out?" asked Quinn.

"Absolutely," said Sandi.

The two girls left the Griffin residence and set out on their mission.

They doubted they would encounter anything interesting, but they would go out anyway.

-

Daria and Jane walked up the street and, using mirror tiles glued to rings on their fingers, set about identifying the vampires. They had their swords concealed under their jackets, the handles pointed down, the swords were held in place by a Velcro strap on the holster that went to a pad on the hilt. Jane's red shirt concealed the handle, but Daria's jacket stopped at the waist, so she used her shotgun bag to conceal it.

"11 o'clock, the redhead," said Daria.

The redhead was with two other girls who weren't vampires, which meant they were prey.

Or assistants to the enemy.

"You sure it's this way?" asked Daria, trying to make them seem lost.

"Yeah, I think," said Jane.

Daria got a book out and they both looked through it as the group passed.

Eventually the group had passed, and Daria and Jane started to follow them maintaining a suitable distance.

-

Quinn and Sandi walked along the dark streets, keeping their distance from any possible concealment.

They stayed alert, suddenly wondering if this was a good idea.

-

The group approached a building with a vampire sentry.

"That's a nest," said Jane.

"Sure is," said Daria.

A human left the nest, this person had bite marks on his arms, some old.

"Blood Whores," said Jane.

"Sure are," said Daria.

"Do we bother?" asked Jane.

"No, vampire brothels are to be left alone, this is another reason why we follow before engaging," said Daria.

They saw Quinn and Sandi run along the street crossing the front of the brothel, bows in hand and quivers on their backs.

"The fuck?" asked Daria.

They then saw a bunch of vampires, one with two arrows in his chest, another with three, obviously none of them in the right place.

-

Quinn and Sandi kept running.

"My Mom will KILL me if I come home late AND dead," said Quinn.

"I told you this was a bad idea," said Sandi.

"Did not."

"Did too."

They turned a corner and after weaving around some trash cans, found their exit cut off by a wire fence topped with razor wire.

They looked back and saw the vampires already blocking the way they had come.

"Now what?" asked Sandi.

Quinn took another shot at the inbound vampires.

She got one, Sandi joined her in firing, but they quickly ran out of arrows.

The vampires surrounded them. The one with three arrows in him said "I like my meals nice and tender," as he approached Quinn, who was now regretting their failure to consider the possibility of having to go hand to hand.

Then Jane appeared behind him, jumping from dumpster to dumpster, drawing their attention from them. She jumped onto the gang, using their shoulders as stepping stones, getting between the gang and the fence. She then decapitated three at once with her katana.

"Get down or get behind me," Jane said.

Sandi and Quinn moved to Jane, but they were grabbed by the remaining vampires.

"Now what?" asked Quinn.

"Pull your socks up," said Jane.

Jane jumped, moving her feet 270 degrees around, winding her body up for the swing, and at this point Sandi and Quinn got it. They were in a deep bow by the time the sword passed over them, and moved behind Jane the instant the vampires turned to dust.

Quinn then looked behind her and saw red hairs mixed with the dust, she checked her hair, and found it had shortened about 10cm.

Two vampires picked up the bows that had been abandoned, pulling two arrows from their friends. They didn't move fast enough to get their shots in, they did manage to duck Jane's first swing, and the four were weaving around Jane's attacks. They were not getting a shot in, the vamps without the bows pulled arrows out of themselves and made to stab Jane. Jane had not forgotten them. One was decapitated, the other fell on his ass. The ones with the bows drew, but Jane sliced through the bows before they could fire.

The remaining Vamp that didn't have a bow that was going to manually stab Jane got decapitated by a HE round from Daria's shotgun, since Daria was too tired from running to start slicing. So it was left to Jane to finish the last two, Daria picked up the two arrows and threw them to Sandi and Quinn, deciding they'd be better off grabbing the vampires attention than becoming human shields.

Jane decapitated another, and the last vampire who was well aware that the girls behind him were now armed, froze as he tried to think his way out.

He ran out of time.

Jane looked around before holstering her sword, and Daria walked straight to Quinn saying "ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE?"

Quinn had no response.

"MOM WOULD HAVE A STROKE IF YOU TURNED UP DEAD! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?"

Quinn looked in surprise at Daria, which wasn't the 'Getting yelled at for doing something wrong' kind of surprised, that had passed. This was the 'Did you just say that?' Kind of surprised.

Daria quickly reviewed what she had just said, and winced.

"Go home, and tell no one," said Daria.

Quinn and Sandi headed home.

As soon as they were gone, Jane turned to Daria and asked "Think she'll tell?"

"I don't know, but she'll want to know for sure weather or not I'm Daria" said Daria, she then said "Come on, let's go home."

-

Civus Vail looked up as one if his guards entered.

"Excuse me master, but I have an important matter to discuss with you."

"Go on," said Civus.

The guard then lifted his arm and shot a rocket at him.

Civus erected a shield in time, but the shield was set up an appropriate distance away for a HE warhead, not the nuclear warhead it in fact was. He was blinded by the flash and felt the blast energy feed back through the shield into his body, knocking him out.

He didn't see the Guard turn back into Illyria, or see her reload the device under her arm from her back pack magazine. The trigger mechanism automatically extended into her palm, she lifted the cover off the trigger and shot the second rocket into Civus's chest.

Illyria looked once again at the launcher strapped to her arm, impressed at Winifred's handiwork: the device consisted of a back pack that had a magazine full of rockets in their disposable launching tubes, and a power pack for the underarm launcher.

Every connection between the rocket package and launcher, mechanical or command, was magnetic, that allowed rapid assembly, loading, and firing.

Another thing Winifred had done was find a way to use the metal known as sodium in the propellant, this seemed insane to Spike and Wesley, but Winifred had explained it to Illyria's satisfaction, it had provided a better rocket fuel for them extending the range of the system significantly.

Humans: kind of weak, but kind of smart. Nothing like the weapon she was wielding now would have been practical in her time. Humans had exceeded her expectations by not only banishing the pure demons such as herself, but also by developing the kind of industrial and technological capabilities she could never have dreamed of.

But it did take a few hints from her to lead Winifred to think of designing this type of warhead.

This was why Illyria now wanted to rule an empire of humans, they had the capability to exceed their own strengths by their engineering and manufacturing abilities.

Illyria was brought back to reality as she heard footsteps approaching (she was glad her hearing couldn't be overloaded like most human and demons could).

Two guards entered, having heard the noise on account of not being deaf and having a nervous system capable of sensing touch. Illyria immediately pulled a Katana and, spinning as she advanced, sliced them into three parts before they could do anything.

She then disguised herself again and made her exit.

-

Wesley pulled up besides Izzerial's car as it departed, and Winifred killed the two in the back first, the driver took too long to come up with any kind of plan (such as smashing the cyclists into the row of cars parked on that side of them) and ate the last burst after Izzerial.

They were clear before the car could swerve into them, and Winifred had the silenced MP5 out of sight.

-

Daria entered the school and headed to the library.

After she had checked the condition of the library and the organisation of the books, she headed back to the front desk and opened the library to the school.

She picked out a book for her to read, astrology for beginners, and a spell book, some of this was part and parcel of the real universe.

Just a pity there are so many con artists in the trade, horoscopes were an example. There were two kinds of magic, there was illusory magic (Penn and Teller type stuff) and there was spell casting (the real shit), that was the kind of magic the Watchers Council dealt with.

She sat down to read the books and waited for Tiffany to show up.

-

Sandi and Quinn met Tiffany outside school and they headed in. Tiffany had reverted to something more normal looking, jeans and a red tee shirt under an iridescent purple jacket.

"How was your holiday Tiffany?" asked Quinn.

"Oh, it was quite good, went to Barbados," said Tiffany, she then asked Quinn "what did you do to your hair?"

"Oh, thought I'd try something different. So, how went Barbados?" said Quinn.

"Nice, hot sun, hot beach, hot males, zero vampires, right?" commented Sandi.

"Yeah," said Tiffany, for some reason she blushed as she opened her locker.

"Hot maaaaaales," Quinn prompted pointedly.

Tiffany smiled weakly and chuckled, she then said "yeah, I met someone, we had fun."

"Latex coated fun, right?" said Sandi.

Tiffany blushed harder as they headed to class.

"That is what students at this school talk about?" asked a familiar and disapproving voice from behind them.

Tiffany, Sandi and Quinn turned to see Angela Li, accompanied by Val and a camera crew.

The crew were dressed smart-casual. Val was dressed in a purple suit jacket with a grey shin length skirt, a silver crucifix on one jacket lapel, a looped black ribbon with a white tail under it, hair in a bun.

"I assure you that they were probably joking," said Angela.

"Were you?" asked Val.

Sandi decided to answer this question. She walked up to Val saying "well, considering that this was a private conversation amongst ourselves, and that eavesdropping is rude, and your opinions of us weigh less than a clean vacuum, my answer will have to be kiss my highly fashionable ass."

"Miss Griffin, that is no way to talk to honoured guests of Lawndale high, be polite," said Angela.

"I was being polite," said Sandi.

The three of them started to walk off.

"What would have been rude?" asked Quinn.

"Telling her to suck my anus," replied Sandi.

The three laughed "You've definitely changed since I last saw you," said Tiffany.

"Yeah, it's not like I'm the leader of anything right now. Doesn't seem to be any point in resurrecting the fashion club, wasn't any point in it's existence to begin with, I could do with a change," said Sandi.

"Healthy I guess, Stacy's Illyria, Tiffany's a slayer, I'm … " Quinn's face took on a look of confusion.

"You're fine the way you are, Quinn. You never had any serious identity crisis, even when you were doing that fake smart thing a while back, you were in your happy place. That's one of the thing's I've always been jealous of," said Sandi.

Neither of them noticed that Tiffany had dropped behind with an anxious look on her face.

-

"This is getting ridiculous," said Gunn.

"It was ridiculous at dawn, now it is … ridiculouser," said Illyria.

"Angel's dead," said Wesley.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Winifred.

"If he was successful he would be here by now, if he had to abort, he'd be here by now. What does that leave?" asked Wesley.

"Delayed, due to insufficient rain," Said Spike from the doorway.

"Perhaps my first assumption was correct," said Illyria.

"What first assumption?" asked Gunn.

"'Leery was speculating that Angel had been corrupted by the Senior Partners just before we encountered Droogyn," said Spike.

Everyone stayed silent for the next few minutes.

"How do we find out what's what?" asked Gunn.

"Mount an Obbo on Wolfram and Hart," said Spike.

Wesley thought about it and said "Alright, Illyria, fancy dress time again."

Illyria cocked her head in that way that either meant 'Elaborate/explain,' or 'I am about to turn you into burger meat.'

-

"And here is the library, the students have a lot of respect for the knowledge contained within this room, I have never found any sign of trouble here," said Angela.

"You never find any sign of trouble because this place holds no interest to them," said the librarian without looking up.

Val looked over and asked "Daria?"

The librarian looked up, a look of recognition on her face, but she said "nope, Joy Merryweather."

"Miss Merryweather was only joking, the students love this place," said Angela.

Almost on cue, the three girls they had seen earlier entered.

"See?" said Angela, but her smile was displaced as she remembered the earlier encounter, she sighed in frustration.

"What kind of reading do you like?" asked Val.

The three girls looked around and Sandi said "all kinds."

"We have a very good section on alternative religions," said Joy, holding up one of the books she had selected.

Angela nodded, smiling in approval.

Val then frowned and asked "you keep material such as that in a school?"

Angela looked confused.

"Oh, have you covered Evolution in science yet?" asked Joy of the girls.

"I think we did that last year," said Sandi.

Quinn and Tiffany looked confused, as did Sandi, not fully getting what was going on.

Val frowned even more and said "Miss Li, are you telling me you would expose the youth of this nation to such amoral ideas?"

"Yep, we're an evil cesspit of religious diversity and tolerance," said Joy, she then picked up a carton of leaflets with a blue looped ribbon on the front and offered them to the girls.

Angela was more confused then ever.

"Very interesting," said Val, who was frowning deeper than ever, slowly shaking her head.

"Right, well, moving on," said Angela.

-

"Okay, what was that?" asked Sandi.

"See that black ribbon with the white tail?" asked Joy.

"Yeah?" said Sandi.

"Symbol of mourning for the spiritually dead," said Daria.

"Spiritual- … not getting it," said Quinn.

"As in, anyone who isn't a Christian fundamentalist. As in, 'we're sad that so many of our fellow humans are going to hell for not believing our fairy tales'. Treats anyone with a different opinion like they're mentally deficient," clarified Joy.

"Oh, you were having a laugh at them," said Sandi.

"Yep, looks like Val's found herself a new blood bank to rob," said Joy.

"Remember the last time you chased her off?" asked Quinn.

"Yeah, I, … -" Joy winced again, now Sandi and Tiffany had strange looks on their faces.

"You could have just asked, you know," said Joy.

"Err, if you're Daria, then who's in jail?" asked Quinn.

"My stunt double, and the Watchers Council have been at me to return it to them for a while now," said Daria.

"'It'? … What is it?" asked Quinn.

"An android," said Daria.

Tiffany started walking off.

"You all right there Tiff?" asked Daria.

Sandi and Quinn looked at her.

"I'm fine, … excuse me," said Tiffany, as she headed off.

Sandi and Quinn looked to her and asked "you speak to her last night?"

"No. Well, I called when she ran late, she told me I had the wrong number. I'm not sure what's with her, but I'm not prepared to push her for answers right now. It's not like we need to draft the slayers any more, we have a sufficient pool of volunteers without doing that now. But if she doesn't show up tomorrow, then I will want to get some sort of answer, to be sure she's alright." said Daria.

-

"I keep hearing them talk about vampires and the Watchers Council," said Tiffany.

"But you're not acting as if the stuff is real, are you?" asked Margaret.

"No, but the whole thing is still to seamless, it's not like I'm nodding off and starting a dream, or anything," said Tiffany.

"Well, in that case, I'll write you a sick note and get your parents to pick you up, they can arrange for you to see your doctor about it," said Margaret.

-

Daria was headed to lunch when she heard the rantings of Barch and Dimartino. She headed towards the sound and saw the pair of them arguing with each other, … and Val.

"FEW as the commonalities I HAVE with this PSYCHOPATH we HAVE for a SCIENCE TEACHER, I can assure YOU that we're in TOTAL AGREEMENT that your organisation is CHOCK FULL OF SHIT!" yelled Dimartino.

"You use this language in front of impressionable youth?" asked Val.

"Weren't you once trying to be the impressionable youth?" asked Daria.

"That was a long time ago," said Val, as she squirmed.

"Two years ago, wasn't it?" said Daria.

"Well, yeah, … but that was before I saw the light," said Val.

"That's what you get for taking 'shroom tea," said Daria.

"HAH! I NEVER DID 'SHROOMS! TAKE THAT!" gloated Val.

"You didn't?" asked Daria.

"That's right," said Val.

"Hmm, … Maybe you're not taking enough drugs then." she then continued on to lunch.

"HANG ON, how'd you know I was here before?" asked Val.

"Quinn told me," said Daria.

-

Daria was returning from lunch when she passed Tiffany and her parents in the hallway. Angela was a few metres behind the Blum-Decklers. She gestured for her to stop.

Soon as the Blum-Decklers were out of sight, she said "Earlier, when I was giving Val a tour of the school, you decided to antagonise her on camera."

"Yes," replied Daria.

"Do you like your job?" asked Angela.

"Oh lighten up, fundies get laughed at here. This gets to the public whose opinion you care about, they'll cheer us on because they think fundamentalists are full of shit, and because it's Val who's presenting. I just brought some honour to this sacred institution," said Daria, she then smiled and resumed her course to the library.

-

"Tiffany skipped class," said Quinn as she and Sandi entered the library.

"She left with her parents," said Daria.

"What's going on?" asked Sandi.

"I dunno, but I want you to talk to her this evening. Don't cause an incident, it's more vital you maintain the ability to talk to her, just gather what information you can get her to volunteer," said Daria.

"It could be something that happened when she was in Barbados," said Sandi.

"Okay, remember, ask, but don't prod, she's not ready to tell you, pressure will blow her away from you," said Daria.

-

Jane answered the door to see a woman holding a photograph, she asked "have you seen this boy?"

Jane looked at the photo and felt ill.

Good thing there's no BP to drop.

"No, sorry," she said.

The woman thanked her and moved on.

Jane closed the door and sat on the couch, staring blankly at the wall.

-

Mr Blum-Deckler answered the door and saw Sandi and Quinn standing there.

"Hi, Tiffany's not feeling well," he said.

"Mind if we look in on her?" asked Sandi.

Mr Blum-Deckler considered this, and finally said "fine, go ahead."

-

"Joy, how goes it?" asked Giles.

"Sandi and Quinn are going to talk to Tiffany now, she was sent home from school today. Apparently something happened between Tiffany leaving my sight at the start of Easter, and me calling her last night when she was running late. I'm not sure how to approach her about it right now, she knows I will support her in the event of an accident such as the one she thought she had, but I can't compel her to disclose anything to me. I need to find out what happened in Barbados over the last few weeks." said Daria.

"I'll get on it, but we're busy here, your slayer isn't the only one that we have lost contact with. We have hundreds refusing to acknowledge our calls, and hundreds have just disappeared, we're trying to find commonalities now. The timing of them all is too tight for this to be accidental, we believe someone is making a move against us. We've buttoned the Council premises up tight in case someone tries to hit us, and we're sending a team from place to place to place chasing leads." said Giles.

"Safety in numbers." said Daria.

"That's based on having our HQ blown up and most our forces slain by bringers when we went against the First Evil. Now, it's possible we may have over compensated as a result, but I am not going to lose our reconnaissance teams to whatever is doing this." said Giles.

"Which means I'm at the back of a very long queue." said Daria.

"Yes, sorry about that." said Giles.

"Well, thanks anyway." said Daria, she then hung up and thought about what she was going to have to do.

She then started dialling another number.

-

Heather returned to her cell to find Daria standing on her bed, a cable coming out of her back leading to a socket, and a strong bleach type smell.

"Daria?" she asked.

Her cellmate turned around and said "I have to go. Sorry about this." before she turned back to what she was doing.

Heather saw sparks fly for a couple of seconds, then again, and then Daria dropped a severed bar from the window onto the bed.

Daria's right index finger entered view, the finger tip had been split and retracted back, revealing the tip of some sort of tool, when she placed that finger near the bottom of the next bar, a blinding light appeared between the finger and the bar, sparks flying from the other side.

Heather just stood there, Jaw dropped, as Daria used her finger laser to cut through each bar.

"Err, … what exactly are you doing?"

"I have been ordered to escape." said Daria.

"By who?" asked Heather.

"By the real me, the one who doesn't have a plasma torch secreted inside her finger."

"Oh, … I see." said Heather.

Daria removed the last bar, and unplugged herself from the socket under the bed, she then jumped through the window, and all these alarms started sounding.

There were megaphone enhanced voices telling Daria to stop, heather walked up to the window and watched as Daria looked around, guards seemed to end up looking away with their eyes shut for some reason.

Daria then ran to the inner fence, and cut through it with her plasma torch finger, the dogs on the other side running at her, biting her, and then recoiling and fucking off for some reason.

Daria then dragged herself up the smooth concrete outer wall, ridiculously fast.

-

"There's Hamilton, in Angel's old office." said Wesley.

"In retrospect, surveillance devices would have been useful." said Illyria.

"Indeed." said Wesley.

They were sat on the roof of a neighbouring building, supposedly federal agents watching for gangsters that were supposedly carrying out meetings. They had gotten their hands on some parabolic microphones, but the window to Angel's office was too stiff for them and they were getting nothing but wind, birds, planes, etc. bounced off the window. A laser microphone would have been more appropriate, but they couldn't find one. Winifred was busy making one, but she'd be a couple of hours.

"There's Harmony." said Wesley.

"Sabassis's army can't get it together without their leader, what should we do about it?" said Winifred, as she approached them from behind, holding the device she was carrying (which was basically a black PVC project box with some holes in the front, some switches on the bottom, and an ear phone coming out).

"Sabassis's dead?" asked Wesley.

"Angel must have been successful." said Illyria.

"We ignore them until they can get it together. We are still recruiting replacements, we have no time for them." transcribed Winifred, she then relayed "won't the senior partners be disappointed we killed Angel?" and "No, their patience has expired with Angel, and he voided the Shanshu prophecy, so it is no longer our problem. Now, who are we interviewing today?"

"Angel died escaping after he killed Sebassis." Illyria concluded.

The other two were silent. Illyria didn't perceive silence though, since their emotions were screaming at her. She simply got up and walked to the opposite corner of the building.

-

"You may have heard me talking about vampires and witches or something." said Tiffany.

"Yeah?" said Sandi, trying to remember all the conversations they had ever had with Tiffany on the matter.

"I imagine you figured I was being funny." said Tiffany.

Sandi and Quinn went quiet, trying to remember all the jokes Tiffany had made, because she had made a few.

"I'm afraid I thought those things were real." said Tiffany.

And now Sandi and Quinn were just confused.

"What things?" asked Sandi.

"Vampires, … witches, … robots even, … " she also laughed and said "The First Evil, a ghost that controls a bunch of people called 'bringers', how whacked it that?"

Quinn and Sandi looked at each other.

Tiffany laid back on her bed and placed her hands behind her head, saying "Yep, your friend doesn't just act crazy, she is crazy. The starts and ends of the hallucinations are just so seamless. You know that holiday I was on? Wasn't to Barbados, I stayed at Connecticut state psychiatric hospital, learning to recognise how completely bat shit I am. Miracle I didn't kill someone before my parents spotted my strange behaviour."

-

Robodaria entered a cyber café and after a quick look around, pulled an Ethernet cable out of her wrist.

Her real self had ordered her to start looking for any incident reports in Barbados where Tiffany Blum-Deckler and her parents had stayed.

She quickly found something odd.

No passports under the Blum-Decklers names were ever recorded being used.

No credit cards under the Blum-Decklers names or credit card accounts paid by the Blum-Decklers ever went to any hotels in Barbados or to any travel agencies, airlines, nothing.

She turned to investigating the Blum-Decklers movements during the time when they were supposed to be in Barbados.

They had spent money on fuel at several gas stations heading out of Lawndale, bought some food, then stopped for a while.

There had been some expenditure on some new clothes just before Tiffany's return to Lawndale.

And their last medical insurance bill was slightly higher.

She investigated the reason the medical insurance rate had climbed, the usual reason is that the policy holder had made a claim.

There was a number of payments to Connecticut state psychiatric hospital. This indicated one of the family members had required treatment for a psychiatric condition, but none of the invoices mentioned any names.

Robodaria hacked the hospitals computers and found out it was Tiffany Blum-Deckler who had been treated.

The condition that was being treated was delusional schizophrenia and possible multiple personalities.

According to her medical database, these conditions described visual and auditory hallucinations structured as an imagined reality along with having more than one personality apparent in the individuals brain. She began a broad investigation of the condition, numbers of cases, commonalities, known research.

-

"So Angel buggered the plan then huh?" asked Spike, as the remaining members of Angel Investigations sat around the hotel room (Their old places considered unsafe to return to since the operation against The Circle Of The Black Thorn).

"He carried out the objective, but something important got left out." said Wesley.

"We destroyed the entire circle though." said Winifred.

"Obviously we have not, perhaps the member we failed to plan for is Marcus Hamilton." said Illyria, hoping to get even for getting smacked around by him when he abducted Droogyn.

"Then we need to take him out, before he can replace the circle of the black thorn." said Wesley.

"I can return to our earlier observation point and use the nuclear rockets to kill Marcus." said Illyria.

"Sounds like a plan." said Spike.

-

"Hey mom, can we talk about something?" asked Jane.

"We can always talk about anything." said Amanda.

"Before you put my soul back, did something happen?" asked Jane.

"I don't know what you mean, I did it the instant I discovered your condition." said Amanda.

"How long after me being turned was that?" asked Jane.

"I felt something was wrong the second I got home, the occupants aura had altered, I checked on Trent and you to find out if it was one of you." said Amanda.

"Occupants aura, … " said Jane.

"The occupants aura is the force that stops uninvited vampires from entering a dwelling." said Amanda.

"Right. Okay, and you quickly found I was the dead one?" said Jane.

"Yes, … I wasn't pleased that you were dead, but I couldn't bring myself to slay you. So I rushed out to gather the equipment needed to return your soul." said Amanda.

"You got home to find something wrong? What were you returning from?" asked Jane.

"It was a, … the trip had lasted several days." said Amanda.

"Which means the length of time I could have been running around without a soul, … Okay, thanks mom." said Jane, she then left.

-

"Oh you fucking cunt bastard." said Jane as she hung up.

Daria emerged from the basement and asked "problem?"

"Trying to get Angel or Spike, need to find out what they remember of their time when they were without their souls." said Jane.

"Why?" asked Daria.

"My mother re-ensouled me several days after she had departed on a long trip, so, … well, … " Jane gesticulated as she tried to figure out how to broach the topic.

"You're concerned you might have done something prior to your first memory as a vampire?" asked Daria.

"Exactly, … " Jane sighed and looked at the floor.

"Well, both Angel and Spike have clear memories of their misdeeds."

"Yeah, well, I've got a dream, but I'm not sure it's just that."

"What do you remember of it?" asked Daria.

Jane took a breath and said "There's this boy, 12-14 years old. I lead him into a dark corner in an arcade, I then cover his mouth and drink him dry. Been dreaming that a lot lately, first it was fragments, then it's been getting more and more real. And then today, a woman knocked on the door, showed me a photo with the boy on it, asking if I had seen him."

"Ah." said Daria in response.

They stood in silence for some time, then the phone rang.

Daria answered it "Merryweather sunshine defecating."

"Eww, Joy, … Listen, we just talked to Tiffany, she thinks vampires are figments of her imagination, and she was getting treated for it in Connecticut state hospital. She's really messed up, she's like, in denial or something." said Quinn.

"Oh, … Okay, thanks for that, has she been taking anything?" said Daria.

-

Illyria saw Marcus appear in the office.

She waited for him to sit down at his desk before initiating her strike.

She lowered her binoculars, startling the seagull that had perched on her hand, and loaded the first rocket. The small plasma screen in the side of the handle included a CCIP system calibrated to the rocket's trajectory, and the immense heat of the exhaust cloud would ensure the target would become visible again within 700 milliseconds of the first impact.

She shot the first rocket and immediately reloaded, having her shooting solution the instant the heat had cleared.

All the windows in that room and neighbouring (sideways, up and down) floors had been blown out, Marcus stood up and looked out towards her. She realised the rocket was too slow, she needed to be able to predict his location at impact to be certain of a kill.

She shot the rocket at the wall behind Marcus, just as Harmony was approaching the door.

Illyria didn't care if she killed Harmony, she reloaded and waited for Marcus to hit the ground.

He struck the pavement that divided the carriageways.

Some people stopped their cars and emerged to render assistance to Marcus, some of them were looking up at her, since they had seen the second rocket smoke trail as it had entered the building (nuclear ordnance not exactly being the quietest items invented).

Illyria had her solution, but she found herself considering the opinions of her new allies with regards to the deaths of non-combatants, the nearest four would be vaporised, those driving past would range from fatal burns and massive internal haemorrhaging to shrapnel and various blunt force injuries, some of their vehicles would be thrown off the road.

But if she allowed Marcus to recover, her mission would be a failure, and he would reprioritise Angel Investigations as the immediate threat, and would probably not come unprepared for Angel Investigations new weapons.

She fired.

Marcus didn't move, neither did the people who had seen her launch the third rocket, they just stared as the rocket came at them, not realising they could save themselves, or that they would die if they were that close to the warhead when it detonated, Illyria couldn't comprehend their lack of movement, it was totally illogical.

He was vaporised.

The predicted incidental damage occurred also.

Illyria abandoned the position, shifting her disguise as she re-entered the building.

-

"Err, … yeah, that's about right." said Jane.

Daria entered the picture and waited for the response.

Then she got an Email alert from Daria.

"Getting lonely are we?" cooed Jane.

Daria opened the Email and read it.

"Well, we knew this, Quinn just told us, … huh, that is odd." said Daria.

"What is?"

"The condition, or rather the combination of conditions, has increased rapidly over the past few months, and affects only women, mostly in their teens. … Mostly in the Americas and Europe, Australia, East Asia, … " Daria started typing a new Email.

"The names? Who are we expecting to find?"

"I don't know, but Giles said a lot of slayers have ceased any kind of contact with their watchers, or even disappeared. And the cases are chronologically too close together for this to be coincidental. I want to get Giles to compare this new information with-" started Daria, but the other program started flashing. She checked on it, there were 5 missing kids, one of them had been killed by a vampire, all were found dead too far away or under conditions that excluded the attack Jane had described.

"I don't think you did this."

"Okay, then what's with the vivid memories?"

"I think we need to-" started Daria, but she was interrupted by the ceiling falling down from above them.

Except the plaster was being thrown too hard for it to be the ceiling collapsing, and a piece of the roof above was missing, also Daria's ears were ringing.

Daria and Jane started picking the splinters of the batons from them when Jane grabbed Daria and shoved her away from the computer into a corner.

Daria didn't have time to ask what was going on before the desk with her computer on it exploded.

The smoke rose through the hole in the ceiling, revealing a hole in the wall behind where the desk had been, and a sort of crater where the floorboards had been pushed down between the beams, which were bent and splintered, they no longer looked like they could support someone standing on them near the crater.

"Let's GO!" shouted Jane, as she picked up Daria and started dragging her by her coat down the hall.

Daria grabbed her phone and started dialling, there was another explosion above them, but the greater distance between the roof and ceiling above them meant they only got showered in plaster.

Amanda then came up the stairs asking "What's going on?"

"MOM! SHIELD! NOW!" shouted Jane, looking up.

Amanda did this and asked "what was that noise?"

"Some kind of artillery strike. Someone tried to blow up Daria, didn't know what had happened at first, the ceiling was blown down. I smelt high explosive residue, managed to get her out the way just in time." said Jane.

"I'd say it was a mortar." said Daria, her phone then stopped ringing and she said "Giles, I think I know what's going on."

-

Sandi and Quinn were stood around Tiffany's window as they tried to figure out where those bangs were coming from. They had seen some smoke rising up, and saw one blast being deflected by something invisible to them, and Tiffany was just lying on the bed, probably unsure weather what she heard was in fact real.

"Where's that smoke coming from?" asked Sandi.

"Looks like Jane's house." said Quinn.

"That last one was just in mid air, like it was on a force field or something." said Sandi.

Quinn pulled her cell phone and called the lane house.

Suddenly something hit the roof above the window, and a puff of smoke appeared in the garden.

The bang rattled the window.

"What was that?" asked Quinn.

They decided to head down stairs, they got out into the hallway when there was another bang, this shook plaster from the ceiling.

Tiffany emerged from her room and headed to the bathroom.

Then there was another bang, debris was blown out of Tiffany's room, some of it dug into the wall.

Mr Blum-Deckler came upstairs and asked "Where's Tiffany?"

"Bathroom" said Quinn, her cell phone stopped ringing.

"Casa Lane."

"Hi, there are explosions going on here-" started Quinn.

Jane interrupted, saying "where's Tiffany?"

Another explosion occurred in the attic, shaking more plaster loose, Quinn answered "Bathroom."

"GET HER OUT OF THERE!" yelled Jane.

Quinn kicked the door in, Tiffany was just about to open a pill container, she didn't have time to ask anything before Quinn grabbed her and shoved her out of the bathroom.

Quinn and Tiffany felt bits of wood enter their skin and their skeletons jar.

Then they were pulled to their feet by Sandi and Mr Blum-Deckler.

Jane said something, but Quinn couldn't hear it very clearly.

"What?" asked Quinn.

"Get into the basement and keep moving around." said Jane.

Quinn relayed this instruction to the others and they headed down stairs.

-

Daria got the car into the houses shadow and Jane got on board, pulling down the blinds Daria had installed especially for Jane, as soon as Amanda was on board, they were off.

They headed out to Tiffany's place.

"Thank you." said Daria before hanging up, she then said "Giles is telling everyone what the situation is now." she then started dialling her stunt double, which picked up immediately "err, … listen, … listen." said Daria, then she started drumming her fingers, as if trying to come up with a plan, she tutted twice, hissed through her teeth once, tutted again, and then said "we need to, … err, … " she then tutted once and hissed four times, said "err, … ", then hissed once and tutted four times.

-

"WHO'S DOING THIS?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.

"NO IDEA, WE'LL ASK JANE WHEN SHE GETS HERE." shouted Quinn.

They had gotten to the basement, and were now moving around, but the latest shell hit the stairs leading out of the basement, the next one hit the wall along the front of the house.

"Am I imagining this?" asked Tiffany.

"No." said Quinn.

The next hit near where the last had hit.

When the third hit slightly further along than the last, Sandi said "They're trying to bring the house down on us."

"How the fuck are they placing their shots?" asked Quinn.

Another shell hit.

Then they heard a car come right up to the house and stop.

Daria poked her head through one of the holes and asked "everyone alive in there?"

"Yeah, what's happening?" asked Quinn.

"First Evil apparently. Haven't seen any bringers or any intangible people, but that's the only bandit that has the capabilities we have observed so far. Move some of that furniture up to this wall and climb out."

Quinn and Sandi did as told, the Blum-Decklers followed with Tiffany.

Once they were all outside, Daria turned to the Blum-Decklers and said "you believe all this talk from Tiffany about vampires, demons, and any other weirdness she mentioned to be some sort of hallucination, right?"

Mr and Mrs Blum-Deckler nodded and Daria said "that's understandable, but I'm afraid it's all real. You all saw how the mortar fire followed Tiffany around the house? The First Evil can monitor any place it chooses to while simultaneously commanding it's minions known as bringers. That's how it managed to follow Tiffany around the house, tried to take me out earlier when I made the connection. Now, I need you to come with me, and I can't tell you where we're going, just get in your car and follow me, Sandi, with them, Quinn, with me, I have a plan, just have to trust me, okay?"

The Blum-Decklers nodded and everyone went to their vehicles.

Daria headed back to the Lane house, Jane said "WHAT PLAN? YOU HAVEN'T GOT ONE AT ALL, HAVE YOU?"

"I will have one, just trust me." said Daria.

-

They arrived back at the lane house, Daria then told Jane to grab her flamethrower, while she herself would grab whatever ammunition and firearms she could carry, Quinn was to grab the swords, stakes and other contact weapons.

The Blum-Decklers pulled up behind Daria's car and entered the house.

-

Quinn picked up one of the swords, she couldn't resist drawing it part way out of its holster, and then giving a reverent "whoa." as she realised this was one of those ultra sharp swords the Japanese had.

She quickly remembered that they were in a hurry, so she put it back in its holster and started gathering the swords and axes from the wall rack.

Daria emerged from the basement with two Uzi type guns stuffed in her waistband, a vest full of longer shotgun shells (probably also explosive), a sports bag full of probably more guns and ammo, and a big fuck off rifle bag.

Jane came down stairs carrying that flamethrower.

"We need to get a move on." said Daria, as she noticed Quinn was still there.

Quinn obliged and carried the weapons out to the car.

Daria handed the guns to Sandi, and fished 5 long clips out of the bag, saying "Bringers are dead easy to kill, just watch your ammo, these things will use up a clip within 2 seconds", she then pointed out the various controls on the weapon, quickly explained how to use it, and then headed to her car telling Quinn to drive.

It was now dark enough for Jane to release the blinds on the windows in the back.

Quinn got in the drivers seat and asked "where to?"

"Head west for now." said Daria.

Suddenly Daria's phone rang, then it quit just as Daria went to pick it up.

Amanda suddenly experienced a dizzy spell, saying "okay, I'm wiped. I'm sorry, I haven't been well lately."

"Quinn, start evasive action." said Daria.

"Right." said Quinn, as she started weaving, doing her best to avoid accidentally ruining someone's front lawn.

"Wonderful." said Jane.

The Blum-Decklers were weaving around behind them as well.

There was an explosion behind them, it took out the front left wheel of the Blum-Decklers car, and lifted it almost over, but the car came back down again, pointing off to the right, it crashed into a house, Daria stopped and reversed to them, Amanda seemed to come to life again.

Sandi helped the Blum-Decklers squeeze into Daria's car and asked "What the hell just happened?"

Quinn then saw a trail of smoke overhead moving off to the horizon, another explosion occurred about three metres over them.

"Oh, that's just a maverick." said Daria.

The trail disappeared over the roofs and there was a flash just over them, followed by a cloud of smoke illuminated by a fire from underneath.

They heard the bang several seconds later.

"The robot, right?" asked Jane.

"What?" asked Sandi.

"Sorry for almost getting you lot killed, but we needed to take out the bringers now, and since the First Evil could monitor us all, I needed to make it look like I had no idea what to do about it." said Daria.

Amanda then said "I would have had to stop shielding us eventually anyway."

Once they were all on board, Quinn started off again.

"So, no more bombardment?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.

"For the moment." said Daria.

"So where to?" asked Quinn.

"Take the next right." said Daria.

-

While explaining that she thought was under attack from an 81mm mortar, Daria had tutted 'F16 AGM65 CAS' in Morse code, referring most probably to the F16 fighter/bomber, the AGM65 optically guided missile, and CAS the mission profile, close air support.

So Robodaria blagged her way onto an airbase, having hacked her way through the USAFs computers to prepare the aircraft (loaded with an ECM pod, two drop-tanks on triple pylons with AGM65 Mavericks, and 6 mk82 1/4T bombs with retarding fins on triple pylons, plus the AIM9 Sidewinders that normally inhabit the wingtip LAU7s) and had sent a couple of other aircraft to jam AWACS on an 'Exercise', and got to Lawndale.

The next problem had been that there were no longer any shots being fired, she texted 'where's the party' to Daria, hoping for instructions.

Daria had been driving through Lawndale at the time, she started weaving, and at that point, a muzzle flash appeared several blocks away, it was a mortar on the back of an APC, she immediately pointed the aircraft at it, locked the AGM65, and fired.

Now she needed to hide the aircraft and wait for further instructions.

She located an airstrip that had no signs of use what so ever, like it had just ran out of business.

The runway was littered with large pieces of debris, so she imagined lots of small pieces too, the sort of stuff that could be picked up by the wheels and thrown into the airframe when she landed, and could get sucked into the engine when she tried to take off if she was unable to clear it all up before she was needed again.

She shut off the engine and made her silent approach, carefully draining the aircrafts inertia as it fell.

She would hide the aircraft until it was needed again.

-

"Can't get through." said Daria, as she tried to call Giles again.

They were holed up in the Lawndale Magic Box, and Daria had told Amanda to use some of the inventory to make a shield that Amanda wouldn't have to use her own power to sustain "-before the First starts using something in the 200mm high velocity range.", and now Daria was taking a moment to call Giles.

"Think they've been blown up again?" asked Jane.

"No clue, let's check the news, this place get cable?" asked Daria.

"Yes." said Derek Jamalia, the proprietor of the Lawndale Magic Box, he led Daria upstairs to his office, and turned on the news.

Daria saw the watchers council headquarters behind a police cordon on CNN with the subtext 'Vampire cult takes hostages'.

"The police are trying to negotiate with the cult leader, one Rupert Giles, who heads an organisation known as 'The Watchers Council', which is thought to be involved in a mind control conspiracy. The British Prime Minister has issued the following statement."

The image then turned to Tony Blair and his cabinet in the meeting room.

"While I'm still waiting for all the facts to be uncovered, it looks like we have uncovered a vast conspiracy to corrupt the youth of several nations, possibly for terroristic purposes. Right now, all my staff are busy discussing the situation with their counterparts in America, Europe, and elsewhere. As for the watchers council base, the police are currently negotiating with the occupants of the building in an attempt to resolve the situation peacefully, and secure the release of the girls they are holding hostage. That is all we have for the moment, any questions?"

Daria turned to head back down stairs but found everyone except Amanda and Jane had come upstairs.

"That explains the communications blackout, I'm gonna try Willow." said Daria.

"At least the police are unarmed over there." said Quinn.

"Actually, some are. SO19, British equivalent of SWAT, but that's the least of their worries." the phone stopped ringing and Willow answered, Daria said "Hi, Are you aware the First Evil is at it again and has gone overt on our asses?"

"Yes, Giles mentioned this just before he was cut off, has the Watchers Council been blown up again?"

"No, but it's under police siege. There's an investigation going on, they think it's a terrorist cult out to brainwash the worlds youth, and because the link with terrorism has been assumed, and the watchers council are thought to be holding hostages, the SAS are most likely planning their attack right now, and these guys do not have a stun setting if you know what I mean." said Daria, making sure everyone in the room understood the situation perfectly.

"I see." said Willow, after absorbing the impact of what was just said.

"Also, if you're not already doing it, we need every slayer currently being detained in psychiatric institutions to be extracted and made ready to fight as quickly as possible." said Daria.

"On it." said Willow.

"Good luck." said Daria, she then hung up.

After a few seconds silence, Daria said "I'm not a great fan of the 'sit on our ass and hope everything works out' plan, do we have broadband here?", gesturing at the computer on Derek's desk.

"Yes." said Derek.

"Fire it up." said Daria, she then got on the phone and called her stunt double again.

-

Willow was getting seriously exhausted, even with sucking the life force from the personal at the psychiatric hospital.

They had managed to steal a C5 with some hacking, and some conjured uniforms and ID tags, and were using it to get close enough to the various locations so that Willow didn't have to use up so much of her energy.

They had extracted 50 slayers so far, and Willow was also picking up the ones that had simply stopped talking to them.

Even with the aircraft, they still had a lot of distance to cover, and that was just in the United States, the council had other witches of a similar power level to Willow, but Willow didn't have their numbers, she had called Buffy, who had the same list as Giles did, so she would be working Europe and was informing all the watchers in every other region.

-

"There are two in Connecticut State, Three in Mt Sinai, five in New York State, one in Tisch, three in Silver Hill." said Daria.

"The shield spell at this place shouldn't need Amanda's presence to hold, that's assuming the bringers have no magical abilities." said Derek.

"Intelligence on the First Evil and the bringers is highly limited, they seem more willing to use good old, and new, fashioned weapons, unless it somehow convinces someone in command of a missile silo to execute Russia's version of plan R, we should be safe." said Daria.

"The shield would prevent matter from coming in." said Derek.

"Hundreds of kilotons of TNT is still a lot of energy, and given that the Russians during the cold war went big with their version of the minuteman, we can actually expect something in the 10s of megatons, the shield would have to take a lot of force from one of those." said Daria.

"We could always layer them." said Derek.

"Okay." said Daria.

"How are you going to get those girls out?" asked Derek.

"Well, I was hoping I would have a plan A, or 24 other alternate plans after that, but as it happens, I'm looking at plan Z as the most promising plan for success: Wave big guns around and politely ask for their release." said Daria.

"That will make you the most wanted people in America short of Osama Bin Laden." said Derek.

"I'll talk to Amanda about some sort of disguise for us all, we're certainly not going to blag our way in without intimate knowledge of how these people interact, even if we knew the security codes and how to fake IDs for the places, they won't know about Glamours or other image altering spells, but they will know we're different people from those we pretend to be, we'd get found out too fast to be able to do anything." said Daria.

"But if you try to shot your way in, the police will be in faster than you can say 'lemme in'" said Derek.

"We'll be cutting off communications with remote detonated explosives, we'll use my car to pick the girls up, and a bus to carry them altogether, that will need to stay close enough to-" Daria was interrupted by some bangs originating from downstairs "Oh now what?" she said as she headed downstairs.

-

"Romeo zero one, Back door impenetrable, over" said Officer Dave Koni.

The door opened, it was Jane Lane, one of the cultists, she said "What?" in a manner that was more at home with an encounter with an annoying visitor than Lawndale Police Department's Special Weapons And Tactics unit.

After trying to enter, and bouncing off an invisible force field, Dave asked "Are you the leader of your cult?"

"Cult?" asked Jane.

Joy Merryweather walked into view and asked "can I help you?"

"Yes, we have a warrant to arrest you and your associates for the abduction of the Blum-Decklers, Sandi Griffin, and Quinn Morgendorffer, you need to shut down whatever you have generating this forcefield, and surrender peacefully, if you resist arrest, you will be in deeper trouble than what you are thought to be responsible for thus far." said Dave.

Joy looked behind her, thinking about her response.

"Your surrender is not negotiable." said Dave.

"I'm going to have to consult with my associates, then I'll be right back." she then closed the door.

-

There were more armed officers visible through the shop window, pointing weapons inside.

"They think we're held against our will?" asked Sandi.

"Yes." said Daria.

"Why don't I just tell them that's not so?" asked Sandi.

"That would require you all to leave the area protected by the shield. And then, because they think we're a cult, they are likely to dismiss what you say as a conditioned response. You'll all be held for 48 hours in protective custody or committed for psychiatric examination, that would make you vulnerable to more bringer attacks, you could even be captured on the way to the holding facilities and used by the First Evil as hostages." said Daria.

"So we're all going to be fugitives, aren't we?" said Jane.

Daria thought about her response, then said "maybe not." she then pulled her phone and called her stunt double.

-

Giles was walking along the corridor on the 2nd floor to try to clear some of the frustration he was feeling when he saw a woman in a blue sweatshirt and grey jeans with shoulder length brown hair walking across the corridor.

He took a couple of seconds to think who it was, because she was familiar, but not from her- "Tara?" he ran to the room the woman had entered, wondering how- "The First!" he realised, he entered the room and saw Tara standing near the window looking at a bookshelf to the left.

Then he saw an entry wound appear in her back, hearing a gunshot at the same time.

-

"Superintendent?" asked Colonel Aidan Dempsey.

"Can you get through that shield?" asked Superintendent Adam Okaro.

"Still working on it." said Aiden.

"You have a go as soon as you are able to enter the premises." said Adam.

-

"Can't we just tell them what they saw was an illusion? Not like there's a body." said Molly.

"Sure, know how to compress the explanation into the time it takes for them to see and shoot you?" countered Giles.

"Special Air Service have but one role in hostage situations: Kill the hostage takers, remove and restrain the hostages for the police to sort out." said Francine Chase, one of the watchers.

"Right now our shield remains up, but if they push hard enough, it will be collapse. We need to be gone before that happens, so everyone hit the spell books and find us a way to make it happen." said Giles.

-

"Well, I could teleport us all to another location, but that is not going to stop the First Evil directing its forces against us. How long should we give your other self to help us?" asked Amanda.

Daria looked at her watch and shrugged "until SWAT breech the shield, I'd prefer to hold onto this location if I can, since it happens to hold a huge quantity of mystical equipment and consumables."

"Shouldn't we have a plan about now?" asked Jane.

"Well, one problem we're probably never going to get over is the First Evils surveillance capabilities. The reason the operation in Sunnydale worked is that the First Evil didn't know what Spikes amulet was going to do, the numbers of Turok-Han would have eventually overwhelmed the slayers, even with them all active. About the only plan I can think of would be to locate and kill every bringer we can." said Daria.

"Now we're talking." said Jane.

"Amanda, can we locate them?" asked Daria.

"No problem." said Amanda.

"Okay, let's start with the local area, once we have cleared the local area, we'll work on getting the slayers out of the funny farms." said Daria.

"I can only locate the bringers, we don't know what weapons they are equipped with." said Amanda.

"Not a problem." said Daria.

-

The phone rang, he picked up and answered "Dempsey."

"Hoon here, air force has sent the weapon, it will be overhead in 30 minutes, be ready to move the instant you have access, because it takes ages to make those things."

"Thank you." he then hung up and switched his radio to voice activated "all Romeos, move to start positions."

-

"Robodaria airborne." reported the android.

"Acknowledged, stand by for target locations." replied Daria.

Amanda completed the spell, and the dots showing the locations of the bringers appeared on the map.

-

The android used the ground radar to check each corresponding location to discover what kind of vehicle they were in, she had been ordered to prioritise armoured vehicles such as self propelled guns, APCs, and the like, next would be any group of bringers big enough to be worth using a bomb on, or worth strafing.

Hopefully the air force would be looking somewhere else for the aircraft, or she'd have to eject too early to do anything useful.

She located the first bringer group that had a corresponding radar contact, and identified it as an M109 self propelled gun, there was another contact, that was also an M109.

These were spaced 300 metres apart, there were two other contacts in the forest on either side of the firebreak, spaced 300 metres apart, the targets formed a square.

One of the M109s hatches opened, a bringer appeared, carrying a missile launcher of some kind.

It was an FIM92 Stinger, the robot entered a steep dive, but the bringer launched the missile before she was out of view, calling "Atoll, Atoll" she started dumping flares, and managed to avoid getting hit.

She then turned towards the bringer armoured units, arming the mk82s, she then had a triple A warning light up.

She switched to the AGM65s and locked onto the radar source, but it was concealed by the forest, and the Maverick needed to see the target.

Making a note to next time pack some AGM88s, she switched to guns and strafed the triple A unit, the radar was knocked out, she then went back to mk82s and took out the nearest M109 to her, placing the bomb exactly over the magazine.

She then turned and climbed at the same time, putting her over the other unit, she had to light the burner to prevent a stall, which would give the bringer with the stingers a beautiful target if that bomb didn't get them first.

The other concealed target turned on it's radar, the robot turned on the ECM pod and got on the deck, the SAM light remained off, and she cleared the triple A unit's kill radius.

She then turned it off and pulled a half loop, she strafed the second triple A unit and started looking for the next targets.

The next bringer targets were a group of APCs spaced 20 metres apart in a staggered formation on a road south of Lawndale, and another contact was located in the forest moving away from one of the locations given by the real Daria.

"Request target location update on 603 west 1624 south."

"Target has moved approximately 70 metres north, and is continuing to move."

"Acknowledged."

The robot decided to find out what that vehicle was first, switching to AGM65s in anticipation of a deserving threat, and staying close enough to the ground to dive out of view the instant she needed to.

It was a deserving threat: an M730 self propelled SAM unit, she launched a Maverick and dropped to treetop level immediately after, heading to the road, preparing to strafe the APCs.

-

"What's that?" asked Kennedy.

Giles and the other slayers were discussing how they were going to escape when they heard a propeller aircraft of some kind overhead.

"THERE'S A HERCULES, AND IT'S, … IT JUST DROPPED SOMETHING WITH A PARACHUTE." called one of the watchers.

Kennedy went back to the books saying "it's a bomb."

"A bomb?" asked Giles.

"These shields will give if you push hard enough for long enough, it's probably a shaped charge, it'll airburst at around 500 feet, they're not gonna ground burst a normal daisy cutter in the middle of London." said Kennedy.

"Okay, what are we going to do then?" asked Giles.

They saw the shield luminescence and collapse just before they heard the bang, Kennedy poked at a page of the book she was reading and said "right, I got a plan."

-

Henno lifted the cover on the switch and pulled the switch back, setting off the frame charge on the end of the broom handle, now that the shield was down, they could enter the building.

He then dropped the stick and lifted his MP5 as he charged into the room, he slotted two girls who were about to shoot at him and his partner before reporting "Romeo one one inside." on his way to the corridor.

"Romeo one two inside." reported Rebecca, she and her partner would be clearing the same floor as him from the other side.

They encountered two more women and three men with guns in the hallway, they took them out, Henno had to change his clip.

-

"Romeo one one, Floor two, clear." reported Henno.

"Romeo one four, ground floor clear." reported Ed.

The troops would now go upstairs and clear the third floor.

Aiden waited patiently as red troop cleared the final floor.

"Romeo one one, third floor clear, five four X-rays killed, zero Yankees found." came the final report.

Superintendent Okaro looked at Aiden, and Aiden said "Romeo one one from Romeo zero, say again."

"Five four X-rays killed, zero Yankees found." repeated Henno.

Adam was contemplating what this meant, but they had acted correctly in the circumstances.

"Romeo zero from Romeo one one, the bodies have just disappeared." said Henno.

"WHAT?" asked Adam.

-

The smelly way out wasn't a favourite way, but they were not going to get through a police cordon, so the sewers it was.

They had broken into smaller groups so that they would be more manoeuvrable, Giles and Kennedy was in a group of 27 consisting of 15 slayers, 8 watchers, and 4 witches of witch Kennedy was the most powerful.

They had created the illusion of them all packing various submachine guns and pistols that would look like they were developing gunshot wounds when shot, and would fall over, so the SAS would think they were actually killing them.

They had also hidden a door to the sewer (disguised on the sewer side in the event of a siege so that it would possibly be ignored in the event of an evacuation) and a door to the room they were all hiding in from view until the SAS had moved on, then they had escaped into the sewer.

That's how it was like at the watchers council: some things were left in place by the last lot, but the fact almost none of them were around meant that any plans they had needed to be thought up again, and they had simply not gotten around to it, due to everyone trying to train up new watchers and set up something resembling a command structure.

-

"Romeo one one, possible escape route located, heading to the sewer, orders?" said Henno.

"Romeo one one from Romeo zero, didn't someone check the sewer access?" asked Aiden.

"Sewer access was not visible earlier." said Henno.

"Romeo one one from Romeo zero, enter the sewer and pursue." said Aiden.

"Romeo zero Romeo one one, roger." said Henno, he then signalled for someone to open the door, he then entered with Rebecca right behind him, they found themselves in a tunnel leading east to west.

With no obvious footprints, Henno decided to go west.

-

"I'm Winchester." announced the robot, indicating all ammunition had been expended.

"Use the aircraft as a missile on the final target, then hide." said Daria.

"Acknowledged, request target update." replied the robot as she pointed the aircraft at the final target's location.

After receiving the update, she corrected and lit the burners. She ejected 300 metres from the bringers van, and jettisoned the main parachute 20 metres from the ground, about the maximum height she could tolerate a jump from.

She then ran into town.

-

"Right, time to go, Amanda, speed us up and open a door." said Daria.

-

A police officer with very little hair stepped into view and asked "where do you think you're going?"

"Past you or through you." said Rona as she approached the cop, she took a swing but her fist was intercepted, and crushed "aw, one of you guys again."

"Uh-huh, PC Gabriel Kent at your service." said the cop, he then kicked Rona back into the group. He then revealed his other hand, which was holding a desert eagle, saying "you have the right to become dead."

Kennedy got a shield up before he could get off the shot.

After the first shot, she heard footsteps from behind them all, and saw three SAS soldiers round the corner, she got the second shield up just in time to stop their bursts of fire, they unloaded half a clip each at them, one of them had to change their clip.

"Right, LAW 80." said one of them, the soldiers behind him produced two rocket launchers and armed them, the fact they were at a corner meant they didn't have to worry about flame-grilling those behind them, and while the sewer was a brick structure, it was backed by tons of dirt, so they weren't worried about the weapons bringing the place down on them.

Each fired, and each shot felt like an electric shock to Kennedy.

An electric shock from grabbing two of the 11KV leads of a 300KVA substation.

"AAAAOWWW." she cried out.

"Hit her again." said their leader, some more launchers were passed forward from soldiers apparently lining up behind the corner.

The next two made Kennedy feel faint.

"Kennedy?" asked Giles.

Kennedy looked from the SAS squad to the smirking cop, and back again as the next LAWs were aimed at them.

Kennedy waited for them to touch the triggers, then she dropped the shields, ducking and moving everyone out of the way of the missiles.

The cop was hit by one missile, the other blew a hole in the wall somewhere behind him.

Kennedy got the shield up just in time to stop the SAS from killing a whole lot of them, she then said "EVERYBODY FUCKING RUN!"

She was surprised to find the cop intact, considering Buffy's report that a similar projectile had taken the Judge (Blue guy with lots of horns that couldn't be killed, could be dismembered, but also happened to feed off peoples souls from a distance) apart, of course the Judge probably didn't have a stab vest or any similar armour.

The extent of the damage to him was his ribcage was dented like an empty oil drum struck with a sledgehammer, limbs were dislocated, head was dislocated, and there was a hole in the middle of the crater where the copper plate lining the hollow in the charge had been blasted through.

She also remembered Buffy's report that said she had to slice Caleb in half to kill him, and they simply didn't have the time for that, so she grabbed his gun and left him where he lay.

-

They picked up the robot on the way.

"Nice job Robodaria." said Daria.

"I am built to serve, what are we doing now?" asked the robot.

"We're freeing any slayers being held by mental health services, and killing as many bringers as we encounter. First evil depends on them not only for those pesky moving things around jobs, but also to appear as dead people and fuck with peoples minds." said Daria.

"Daria?" asked Amanda.

"Yes." said both Daria and her stunt double, as they looked at the map, they saw a light moving real fast towards Lawndale, it pulled up, then started to turn away.

Daria realised what this meant and said "Quinn, STOP!" she then pulled out two pieces of paper and two vials of sand, gesturing to Amanda to follow her out the back of the APC saying "we have about 20 seconds." as she handed Amanda the piece of paper and the vial full of green sand, saying "outer symbols, counter clockwise, go!"

They did their respective symbols, and once Amanda was back inside the circles, Daria used the magic words to activate the protection spell. A solid looking silver sphere enclosed them.

Sandi finally asked "what's going on?"

As Daria directed Amanda into the APC and followed herself, she said "Bringers got an aircraft and at least one bomb, probably a nuke." she got the doors closed just before the shield and it's contents were thrown backwards, causing everyone to be thrown forwards in the vehicle.

"Quinn, cut the engine." said Daria.

Quinn did as told.

"Amanda, can you teleport through the shield?" asked Daria.

"Yes." she said.

"You can also refuel off other people, right?" asked Daria.

Amanda frowned and said "yes, but it's not very pleasant, I'd prefer not to."

"I'm not seeing a choice, the First Evil's not pussyfooting around, I don't think we should either, free the slayers, you have my cell number?"

"I do, but that shield's going to block all EM radiation." said Amanda.

"We're going to start moving again in 20 minutes, just get the slayers free." said Daria.

"Okay." said Amanda, she then teleported out, sucking a portion of everyone's mystical energy as she did.

"Ghod, that was unpleasant." said Sandi, voicing what everyone there was feeling.

"Yeah, be great if I ever decided to take up bulimia though." said Quinn.

"Okay, everyone, NBC kits, now." said Daria, pulling out the radiation suits from a cabinet within the APC.

"Would it be considered an act of treason to be glad 9/11 happened now?" asked Jane.

"Dunno, but you're immune to radiation anyway." said Daria.

"I know." said Jane.

Mr Blum-Deckler passed one suit to Tiffany.

Tiffany took it, but didn't do anything with it.

"Put it on." said Mr Blum-Deckler.

Tiffany started unfolding it, looking really nervous.

Daria looked at Tiffany and asked "You okay Tiff?"

Tiffany didn't answer.

Daria glanced at her watch and continued to dress in her NBC suit.

The only people who didn't need suits were Jane and Robodaria.

"Hey Daria, Bringer blood, do you know if that's okay for me to drink?" asked Jane.

"Should be, I guess. I'll read up on it later." said Daria.

-

They were approaching another manhole when something dropped into the water.

There was an explosion that all felt, four slayers and two watchers got ripped apart by shrapnel.

Then two SAS operatives dropped into the tunnel and started shooting, Kennedy only got a shield up 3 seconds into the attack, another 5 slayers had been shot in this time, 3 fatally.

The four closest slayers tended to the 2 injured while another asked "are they, … "

"What do you think?" asked Kennedy, extremely cranky at this point from fatigue and the amount of magic used.

"Kennedy?" asked Giles.

"Sorry, I should have been faster off the mark." said Kennedy.

There were footsteps behind them, Kennedy erected a second shield long before the other SAS operatives appeared and shot a couple of bursts, finding the shield up, they waited.

"We try to surrender peacefully, they'll kill us the instant they can, won't they?" asked Kennedy.

"Yes." confirmed Giles.

"Any chance of a plan?" she asked.

"Yes, we find a way to safely escape." said Giles.

"I'm not going to last much longer, and I'm nowhere near as powerful as Willow, or learned, so get a move on will you?" said Kennedy.

-

"How much longer?" asked Quinn.

"Another five minutes, then we'll drop the shield and see if it's cool enough, we don't know what yield was used, it could still be very hot" said Daria.

"How hot?" asked Quinn.

"I don't know exactly, but if we drop the shield and can't move because the tyres are likely to explode, we could all suffer fatal heatstroke, I can't think of a reason why the first evil wouldn't use the biggest bomb it could get it's bringers hands on." said Daria, she then frowned and said "oh hell."

Jane rushed to the front and looked on the GPS and said "we were about 15 miles out of Lawndale when GPS lost the signal, will that do?"

"Yeah if they used a baby, … all the big ones were supposed to be out of service now, USAF are supposed to be down to the 3-50KT range, but I have trouble believing all were destroyed, and if the USAF has any, you can bet the First Evil knew where they were. If it was a 15MT weapon, half of Lawndale will be flat, most of it severely affected. Anyone caught outside would receive 3rd degree burns, some cases ignition will occur, either from direct heat or ruptured fuel stores, … " Daria was trying to work out for herself the odds that her parents would have survived that kind of damage.

They were all silent for the moment.

"Everyone could be dead" said Quinn.

"Y'think?" said Jane.

"We need to find out what's going on now" said Quinn.

"If that was a 15MT ground burst, we'll be driving across a gynormous hob" said Daria.

"I DON'T CARE, I WANT TO KNOW IF MOM AND DAD ARE ALIVE!" shouted Quinn.

"SO DO I! IF THEY ARE DEAD, DO YOU REALLY THINK THEY WOULD BE PLEASED BY US JOINING THEM?" shouted Daria.

Quinn sighed and said "no"

-

"Got a light here." said Andrew.

Faith ran into the cockpit and said "Sam? Who the fuck's Sam?"

"Surface to air missile." yelled one of the slayers in the back.

"Surface to- shit! What do I do?" asked Andrew.

"Excuse me." said Faith, getting into the seat next to him, she then started moving the control stick around rather violently.

A number of facts had escaped Faiths attention in the panic to evade the incoming missile: 1: A C5 galaxy is a big aircraft, meaning that it's angular inertia was delaying all her control movements, meaning all the violent movements on the stick amounted to very little movement at the wingtips and tail. 2: A C5 Galaxy is a big aircraft with zero stealth consideration built into the design, meaning that it is almost impossible to hide it from ANY radar, airborne or ground. 3: aerobatics are hazardous to the health of anyone not strapped down to their seat (as were most the people on the aircraft). 4: she wasn't strapped in either, she was hanging on to the seat by the only thing she could grab, which happened to be the ejection seat handle, which had not been armed, but Faith vs. a measly detent pin tends to result in a win for Faith.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" said Faith as she felt the seat shove her through the roof.

Faith hung onto the seats restraints, but quickly noticed no parachute was deploying, in fact, no rockets had ignited either.

She saw the C5 in its corkscrew below her, she also noticed the movement of a bright light off to the side. It was the missile, it struck the C5 in the tail door below her, Faith reached the decision to leave the seat and dive into the aircraft.

The aircraft pulled out from beneath her, and she couldn't keep up, totally lacking the sail area to perform any manoeuvre other than fall like a brick.

She looked around for the seat again, maybe she could get to it before the parachute deployed.

She located it below her, and dived for it.

The clouds were rushing up at her now.

She reached out for the seat and grabbed the headrest.

She then proceeded to strap herself in.

The clouds came past her, she started to worry that the seat might not be working properly.

She unstrapped herself and decided to try to trigger the parachute release herself.

A quick examination revealed a number of pins with long red ribbons on them.

She realised that the seat had not been properly armed, and started removing them, the first one she pulled out caused something to explode, the explosion caused her to reflexively shut her eyes and cough as the smoke entered her lungs, she then felt the seat restraint pull at her hand, she opened her eyes and looked up, a small parachute had deployed, it was about 1.5 metres in diameter.

It was slowing her down, but she knew it wasn't enough, the ground was getting alarmingly close.

She reached up and grabbed another pin, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she pulled it. There was no explosion this time, but she felt a greater force pull at her and the seat bounce off her legs, she opened her eyes and saw the main chute over her.

She looked around for the C5.

She couldn't locate it, but she didn't see any fires in the sky or on the ground, so she was cautiously optimistic.

-

"ANDREW?" asked Amanda, one of the slayers, as she limped into the cockpit having just bounced off some walls that aren't really designed to be comfortable bouncing off of.

"YEAH?" replied Andrew.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS FAITH?" asked Amanda.

"SHE EJECTED, I THINK IT WAS AN ACCIDENT." said Andrew.

"HOW COULD SHE ACCIDENTALLY EJECT?" asked Amanda.

"WELL, … NONE OF US HAVE A FRACKING CLUE WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE." said Andrew.

"SO WHERE IS SHE?" asked Amanda.

"ON THE GROUND, WHAT ABOUT WILLOW?" asked Andrew.

"STILL NOT BACK, SHOULD I BE WORRIED THAT THE PLANE JUST GOT TORN A NEW ONE?"

"ERR, … I'LL FIND US A PLACE TO LAND"

-

"No, not the fucking skylight, you fucking bastard." said Faith as she saw the roof coming up below her, but if she dropped from this altitude, she'd go through the roof wherever she could land anyway, so she shrugged and let it happen.

She landed in the dining room and let her eyes adjust to the lack of light.

Then she headed to the front door, she had no intention of waiting for the understandably pissed off homeowner to stick a gun in her face.

-

"Right, we're moving on, Quinn, start the engine, turn the air conditioning off." said Daria.

"Right." said Quinn.

Daria then shut down the shield and she grabbed a thermal imaging camera and looked out the window with it.

Quinn had turned on the lights, everyone was looking out at this glassy crater.

"192°C, okay, we should make it before the tyres explode. Quinn, floor it." said Daria.

"Right." said Quinn, she did as instructed.

Daria got her phone out and selected Helen's number, but couldn't get a signal "stupid electromagnetic pulse."

Quinn turned on the radio and started looking for any radio stations.

"What yield did that look like to you?" asked Jane.

"Approximately 15 megatons." said Daria.

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS, DOESN'T THE AIRFORCE HAVE SECURITY?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.

"Sure they do, they're all in Iraq." said Jane.

"Let's just get somewhere that still has functioning phone masts." said Daria.

They encountered what looked like a layer of snow.

"It's April, how can there be snow in April?" asked Quinn.

"When the snow's made of rock." said Daria.

"Oh hell, how many people are going to die from that?" asked Jane.

"A lot." said Daria.

"Wasn't there all this hysteria about nuclear terrorism shortly after 9/11?" asked Jane.

"There was, and some people prepared for it, but how many of them are still prepared?" asked Daria.

They kept driving, thankfully the roads were empty.

-

"WHAT THE HELL DOES 'AI' MEAN?" asked Andrew.

Amanda looked and said "AERIAL INTERCEPT?"

Andrew pushed the transmit button and said "NOBODY SHOOT, NOBODY SHOOT, WE'RE FRIENDLY, OR SOMETHING, OVER."

He waited.

Eventually, he heard someone say "Unidentified persons on November Two Eight Three Foxtrot Echo Kilo, come to heading zero eight zero angels five, do not try anything or exceed 200 knots, over."

"ROGER, … WHAT'S AN ANGEL, OVER?"

-

The fallout had not been blown towards Lawndale, so those who didn't have a truck or building blown down onto them won't get irradiated either, that made Daria and Quinn happy.

On the other hand, Hartford, Worchester and Providence were being snowed on by this shit.

The radio stations had all been advising people to seal up their houses as tight as possible and build up as much water as possible and giving out other advice on how to wait out the glow in the dark snow, as were, presumably, the TV stations.

Daria finally got a signal and decided to call her parents, but was cut off by an incoming call from an unknown source, she answered "Hello?"

"Hi, Amanda here, I got all the girls assembled in an aircraft hanger, some of the girls are busy sealing the place up as best they can against the fallout, where are you?"

"Coming up on New Haven." said Daria.

"Okay, stand by for directions." said Amanda.

-

Faith broke into the payphone and inserted a couple of coins back into the machine, and dialled Willow.

After several minutes of ringing, she hung up and tried Andrew.

His phone was ringing, which could mean he was still alive, but that wasn't a dead cert since Cell phones could survive aircraft crashes better than humans.

After several minutes of ringing, she hung up and tried Buffy.

"Hello?" replied Buffy.

"Hi, Faith here, slight problem, I kinda accidentally ended up on the outside of the aircraft we were flying and can't seem to make contact with Andrew or Willow, have you had any contact with them?"

After a few seconds Buffy replied "Faith, … Hasn't Willow told you?"

"Err, … what's going on?"

-

Riley entered the hospital where the phenomenon was occurring and found the individual at the centre of it all.

He approached the woman who was lying on the floor in the middle of the shield (who's presence was only visible by a refractive index about 70cm from it's centre).

"Stop right there." said the woman.

He did.

"That's the second one that's happened to, you know?"

"I don't know, I just got back." he said.

The woman sat up and turned around, black hair and eyes, he recognised her as "Willow?"

"Hi Riley, how've you been?"

"Oh, not bad, not bad, … been killing demons in south America, … You?"

-

Quinn pulled up to the door at the side of the hanger and they all got out, carrying as many weapons as they could.

This was where Amanda had directed them.

They entered and placed the weapons on the floor several metres from the door.

Then they started removing their NBC suits as Amanda approached them.

The hanger was full of aircraft.

"I suppose we'll have to move when the airport opens." said Jane.

"Nuclear emergency like this, not going to be a problem, but we will need food and water." said Daria.

"Already sorted." said Amanda.

"Alrighty then." said Daria.

"Now we're in a hanger, and they're talking about staying with a bunch of slayers." said Tiffany, she was talking real quiet.

Daria and Jane looked at her.

"Who're you talking to?" asked Quinn.

"Nobody." said Tiffany, she then said "Just me answering Quinn's Question there."

Everyone looked at Tiffany, then Daria asked Amanda "How are the slayers anyway?"

"Some of them have motor functions, the rest are coming off the drugs they were forced to consume." said Amanda.

"Okay, I guess we're just going to have to wait for them all to detox then, … any bringer activity?"

"I got a couple of slayers watching a map with a locator spell." said Amanda.

"Right." said Daria.

"First Evil could send vampires." said Jane.

"Right, that case, you and Robo-me should take up surveillance positions." said Daria handing Jane her cell phone saying "call Quinn if you need to tell us anything, I'll see if I can get you some backup in case you need it, also I need to contact Buffy or Giles if he's available now, Sandi?"

Sandi got out her cell phone and handed it to Daria who started dialling.

Jane picked up her flamethrower and Robodaria picked up a sword, then she turned to Daria and said "Excuse me, but if I might make a suggestion, we could use something bigger than Jane's Flamethrower."

"Really?" asked Daria.

-

Buffy and Dawn had been trying to figure out the best way to keep track of their forces, but they didn't have the personal to do it without depleting their security.

Dawn answered another call and took down the information, she then thanked the caller and hung up saying "Joy reports 232 slayers recovered, 117 are good to fight, the rest are in various states of intoxication, having been recovered from psychiatric facilities."

"Right." said Buffy.

They were both extremely upset, but they knew they had too much going on right now to think about grieving over the dead.

At least the First Evil hadn't started showing up as them and started taking the piss.

One of the Slayers with Buffy entered and said "We got a problem, a warrant's just been issued for your arrest, it seems you apparently made a video where you pledged to kill the British government for their actions."

"WHAT? I DID NO SUCH THING!" yelled Buffy.

"Yes you did." said Buffy's exact likeness as she emerged from the bathroom, then stopped and said "Wait, hang on, no, that was me again, sorry, my bad, let's see you win when you're all in jail getting picked off by my acolytes, shall we?" before vanishing.

"Okay, we need to get out of here, any ideas?" asked Buffy.

"I'm getting good at Glamours." said Dawn, referring to the various image altering spells used for various purposes.

"Alright, do it." said Buffy.

-

"The hallucination is still ongoing, and nothing new has happened." said Tiffany.

Daria had just walked into the office where the Blum-Decklers were, Mrs Blum-Deckler said "She's been talking like this for a while now."

Daria walked up to Tiffany and asked "Hey Tiffany, how's it going?"

Tiffany shrugged and said "Very strangely Daria, this is a rather boring hallucination."

"Do you think you're hallucinating?" asked Daria.

"I'm seeing witches, vampires, robots, and nuclear attacks, sooooooooo, …. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating." said Tiffany.

"Do you remember entering the funny farm?" asked Daria.

"No, I woke up there. It scared the crap out of me, Doc showed me this tape of me talking about vampires and all the rest of it. We started working on what made me imagine that shit. I thought we had it under control, it was down to the odd dream, the medication was working. But the instant I got back to school, it started again." said Tiffany.

"Right." Daria looked at Mrs Blum-Deckler and moved her head to the door indicate she should follow.

"What exactly did they do to Tiffany?" asked Daria.

"Well, first they conducted a drug assisted interrogation, that's where they found out what we all thought to be delusions. Tiffany denied it every time she wasn't under the influence of the hypnotic drugs, the doctor then suggested we try Electroconvulsive therapy. When Tiffany woke up, she had no memory of the discussions regarding her delusions, she did have rather vivid dreams, but those seemed to improve with medication." said Mrs Blum-Deckler.

"Did she describe the dreams?" asked Daria.

"Vampires chasing her, catching her, biting her, … … yeah, we figured that stuff about being a vampire slayer was just to stop the dreams from scaring her." said Mrs Blum-Deckler.

Daria nodded, and thought about what to do next.

"The doctor explained that ECT is less than ideal, and only suggested it when nothing else seemed to be working, we thought Tiffany was insane." she said.

"I understand your position perfectly, seeing the crazy shit I do, I spend just about every waking second wondering if any of it is real." said Daria.

-

"Whoa." said Sandi, as she drew the sword.

"I know, I mean, you see these things on the TV, you wonder how they can cut anything, but I guess movie props are just blunt." said Quinn.

They were looking through the weapons on the floor where they had been placed.

The weapons included all the stuff they had picked up at Jane's house, the magic box stuff they had taken with them, and the weapons from the APC (two minimis (machine guns), two M79 grenade launchers, and 14 MP5s, plus 3 clips for each MP5, each minimi had one 200 round box, and there were 20 CS grenades for the launchers, plus 4 M4s with 3 clips each, and 6 flash-bang grenades)

Then there were Daria's weapons, 3 20 round drums for her automatic shotgun (Quinn and Sandi were surprised those things existed), 400 of those high explosive shotgun rounds (are those even legal?), 12 red spherical grenades (Jane described how it looked when one of those had been used on Amy Madison, Daria described them as thermit grenades with bursting charges), 12 fairly large black grenades with a big yellow stripe around their equators, 20KG of what looked like C4, 20 home built remote detonators, 4 controllers for those detonators, some copper foil (Huh?), 4 Mac 10's with 3 clips each and 500 rounds for them.

Your bog standard school massacre kit basically.

The magic supplies were just weird, various powders, herbs and animal parts, and books.

Daria approached them and asked them "How're you two holding out?"

Quinn shrugged, Sandi shrugged after Quinn did.

"Sorry you two got dragged into this. Again. If I knew it was going to turn into a full blown global war, nukes and all, … "

"It's okay, I just hope mom and dad survived." said Quinn.

"What about you Sandi, any contact from your parents?" asked Daria.

"No." said Sandi.

"Look, I know Lawndale was right next to the blast zone, but there is a good chance that your parents survived, and the fallout was blown away from Lawndale-" said Daria.

"But the EMP is omnidiretional." said Linda, interrupting Daria, who, along with Sandi and Quinn, stared at her.

"Mother?" asked Sandi.

"I was on the phone when the nuke hit, EMP induced a current through the phone line, gave me a heart attack. Congratulations, Quinn, your enemy's mother is dead."

"Enemy?" asked Quinn.

"Easy there." said Daria, looking between both Quinn and Sandi, before turning to Linda's likeness and saying "So First, how's it going, making any progress?"

"Quite well, actually, as you suspect, very few of your group can think their way out of a paper bag." Linda's likeness shifted to that of Jane who then said "too much perfume shrivelled their tiny little brains even further, and that's the slayers, with their healing powers, these two-" the First Evil nodded to Sandi and Quinn and said "-, surprised they can do anything more than pick fleas off each others heads."

"Yeah, First Evil, few tips on winding people up," Daria said as she walked up to Jane's likeness, she then leaned close to her ear and stage whispered "it only works if no one knows that's what you're doing." before stepping back and waiting for the First Evil to do something.

"Okay, but like I said, everyone else is doing crap, you can't win alone, hope you enjoy my bringers killing you." with that, the First Evil vanished.

"Memo to self, develop proton pack." said Daria before walking off.

-

"PC Kent, I want to know what you were thinking right now." said Adam.

"Mostly, getting blown up hurts." said Gabriel.

"That's not funny." said Adam, he was extremely furious at Gabriel's extreme lack of judgement, he had gone into the sewers to confront an armed mob alone.

"I just went with a bad idea is all, I'm sorry if I caused you any distress superintendent." said Gabriel.

"Just don't pull anything like this again, when I turn an operation over to the SAS, it's because it's outside our capabilities. You have the next month off, no questions, no arguments, come back well and wise, … well, well anyway."

"Sir." acknowledged Gabriel.

Adam walked off, and the likeness of Kerry Young walked into the cubicle and said "Giving us the chance to go out and play."

"Where would make a good holiday destination this time of year?" asked Gabriel.

-

Amanda awoke and started looking around for Daria.

She found Daria asleep in a chair near where the slayers had set up a sleeping area.

She wondered if she should wake Daria up, when an alarm clock went off.

Daria stirred and turned it off, she sat up, rubbing her face, she then looked up at Amanda and said "Morning."

"Where's Jane?" asked Amanda.

"I dunno, I left Sandi and Quinn on watch, excuse me." she got up and looked around.

She found Sandi and Quinn both asleep on a pair of sleeping bags near the weapons.

She frowned and lifted Sandi's hand and pushed it right under Quinn's crotch, and stepped back, counting back from 3.

Sandi and Quinn woke up simultaneously with a scream.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING SANDI?" yelled Quinn.

"I DIDN'T DO IT, I MEAN, … " yelled Sandi, trying to work out what happened.

"Could one of you check in with Robodaria and make sure she and Jane didn't get their asses killed while you two were resting your eyes?" asked Daria.

The two girls looked at her, and frowned, realising it was Daria's doing, then Quinn pulled her phone and called the robot.

-

Faith entered the motel room and turned on the TV, hoping to get some sort of update on the situation in general, she had heard about some shit that had happened, Giles and Kennedy were dead, someone had nuked Lawndale, the situation was turning into a serious shit pie.

She watched the news, there was a picture of Buffy on the screen.

"Buffy Summers is believed to be involved with a plot to terrorise the world using an army of people known as slayers. In addition to their terroristic messages, there has also been a rash of abductions from psychiatric hospitals of girls who had a specific combination of symptoms. These girls are now believed to be Buffy's army, we now have an announcement from the president about to occur."

They cut to the Whitehouse press room where President Bush was walking up to the microphone stand.

"My fellow Americans. I come before you today with a heavy heart, as once again, we begin a day with our proud nation struck at by the forces of darkness, of anarchy, of Evil itself. We have awakened this morning into a day not ripe with promise, or brimming with possibilities, but with the very future of our nation in jeopardy.

This morning, our nation, as well as several nations whom we are proud and honoured to share friendship with, have been struck at by a previously unknown group of terrorists. These individuals have acted in a particularly heinous fashion, as they have not only struck at our friends, our neighbours, and our allies… but at those least able to defend themselves… our children, and those who are suffering from mental difficulties in institutions designed to assist them in their ongoing struggle to become whole once again.

In an even more damning testament to their cruel intentions for us all, these individuals have turned many of our own children against us… turning them into living weapons for their diabolic purposes. I come before you this morning to say, as a predecessor of mine said many years before, these words: This will not stand. We will not bow down before any aggressor, neither foreign or domestic, neither aged or youthful, regardless of whether this aggression comes from with our own families, or from without. We will not stand idly by, hoping against false hope that these instigators of a global tragedy will see the error, and the wrongness, and the hopelessness of their cause.

It brings a great burden to report to you that I have declared a state of martial law throughout our great nation, to commence immediately, and to be lifted only at the conclusion of this time of national emergency. I have further ordered the Secretary of Defence to bring our nations' military forces to a higher state of readiness in order to discourage any further incursions from outside our borders, and I have also federalized the National Guard.

Those units are now being activated, in order to enforce the state of martial law and to protect the citizens of this great nation. I stand before you now, and make this promise to you, my fellow Americans: As we did not fall after the events of September 2001, we will not fall in this time of crisis. As we did not waver in that time of national tragedy, we will remain straight and true today.

As we rose up from the ashes of Ground Zero and the Pentagon to strike out with a mighty hand and the force of Justice itself at the evil that would darken our lives, we will reach out to bring that selfsame justice to those who would subvert our children and lead them astray, and we will find a way to bring those children back home… back into are welcoming arms, and into the cleansing, healing light or our love.

I ask all of you watching and listening today to support us in this time of great trials, and to pray for our children, who have once again had a part of their innocence brutally taken away. Thank you."

Faith watched patiently as Bush tried his best to give something resembling an intelligent answer to some of the questions, immediately throwing his actual PR skills into sharp contrast with the skills of his speech writer.

Then they got to something a little more relevant: some terrorists had stolen a 15MT nuclear weapon and used it near Lawndale. None of the newscasters or anyone they talked to knew why it had been used there and not New York, then they got to something else of interest: a battle in Los Angeles.

They cut to an aerial view of some back alleys where piles of dead demons of various sizes lay dead, some of them on fire, most riddled with holes, all decked out gladiator style.

And there had been an attack on Wolfram and Hart using what people were speculating were some sort of microscopic nuke. Some experts the newscasters had talked to were baffled, because they couldn't imagine nuclear weapons being made so small, yet they can't imagine such small weapons as those observed to be shot being that powerful using chemical explosives.

Faith recalled how a few weeks ago, Willow and Kennedy had returned and reported the use by a vampire gang of some really small nuclear weapons that were apparently clean, and that Illyria was going to make some for Angel's team. And now Angel's team have gone toe to toe with the forces of Wolfram and Hart, kinda proves they aren't evil, doesn't it?

Of course it would be nice if they could make contact sometime soon, seeing as they are in the fight for THEIR FUCKING LIVES! … … AGAIN!

There was no news of a C5 going down, so Faith was hopeful that the planeload of slayers was still intact and that it's passengers were still alive.

There was this minor problem about Faith being in the middle of VERY FAR AWAY FROM ANY SUPPORT OF ANY DESCRIPTION WHAT SO EVER to worry about, but she was cautiously optimistic that she could handle anything that was thrown her way.

A bottle crashed through the motel window, a bottle with a flaming rag in place of a lid.

It smashed on the floor near Faiths feet, Faith went to the window to see if she could spot who threw it.

There were about 50 Klansmen standing outside with guns ranging from Berettas to AKs, and her motel room was now on fire, so she was going to have to engage them at some point, but she had no way to close the distance in the time it would take for them to shoot the crap out of her.

She decided to go out the back instead, the fire was creating an emergency exit for her, she just had to wait for the wall to get weak enough.

Why was the Klan after her for fuck's sake? Not like she had done anything to them.

The wall looked weak enough now, so she ran through it, emerging behind the building, and headed out into the forest behind her.

It wasn't much of a forest, it offered little concealment between trees, but it would do, Faith should have a decent amount of distance before the Klan realise she's no longer there, then they'll have trouble keeping up.

But why? … Wait, that fucking Klan massacre near Lawndale, Willow had done that, First must be wearing their ghosts, … Okay, cone heads dying, watch Faith vigorously fail to give a fuck, but that had created a serious problem for her and all the other slayers.

And that's on top of the bringers, Turok Han, and, … whatever the fuck Caleb was.

-

Gabriel dragged the unconscious girls into the basement of the midlands boarding school he was visiting, then he grabbed a sledge hammer and started smashing the stones making up the floor of the old structure.

Eventually there was enough cracks and holes for Gabriel to start removing the stones and he grabbed a shovel, he was pleased with his new found strength, this kind of work would normally take a crew of 6 an hour, and that's with pneumatic drills (no way to get even a baby JCB down there)

When the seal of Danthazar was revealed, Gabriel used a stiff broom to get it sufficiently clean to work, then he grabbed the first sacrifice and pulled a large knife he had swiped from the school's kitchen, he ribbed the girls throat out and threw her half onto the seal so the wound was lower than the rest of her body.

He did the rest of them, and waited for the seal to open.

He would be spending his leave going around the world opening every available hell mouth (some were inaccessible due to geological activity or an inconveniently located artificial structure he would be unable to break through, but he would get as many as possible).

-

"Hello?" greeted Quinn.

"Hi, it's Buffy, I need to speak to Joy Merryweather."

"Standby." said Quinn.

She walked over to where Daria was talking to the slayers, Jane had returned, she had to vacuum every square millimetre of her body to be safe around humans.

Jane had vamped out, Daria asked "hands up those of you who believe this is a hallucination?"

None of them raised their hands.

"Okay." she turned away and Jane unvamped, Quinn approached them and said "Buffy wants to talk to you."

"Thank you." said Daria as she accepted the phone "Joy here."

"I'm now highly wanted, the First Evil managed to make me look like a terrorist, what's your situation like?"

"All my slayers are not in fighting condition, we're low on weapons, consisting of what we had at Jane's house, what we commandeered from the Lawndale Magic Box, and what we swiped from a SWAT APC. Tiffany thinks Vampires and everything else is just in her head, she appears to be the only slayer afflicted with this belief, otherwise, we're ready to move if you have a plan." said Daria.

"Was Tiffany by any chance attacked by a glarghk guhl kashma'nik?"

"Errrphhh, … … a what?"

"glarghk guhl kashma'nik, … oh yeah, that's right, I ordered the incident be classified top secret, it's a demon with waxy skin and weird marble-like eyes, it's got this spike in it's arm that injects a psychoactive poison into you, makes you hallucinate."

"Okay, why was this classified?" asked Daria.

"Personal reasons I'm never going into in this lifetime or any other." said Buffy.

"'Kay, but I don't think that's what's happening here. Looks more like she was brainwashed into believing anything related to our profession is a hallucination than her hallucinating something else."

"What was done to her in the nut house?" asked Buffy.

"Drug interrogations and ECT, same as most the other slayers apparently, but Tiffany was only given ECT once, … Ohhh, hang on, I think I know what's going on now, I want to get on it now, is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"Not really, there's no real way we can out plan the First Evil, as you know, about the only thing you can do is kill as many bringers as possible. Try to check in at regular intervals, I'm sorry about the lack of a command structure right now, just do what you can."

"Right." said Daria as she hung up.

-

Daria entered the office where the Blum-Decklers had been residing.

"Hey Tiff, we need to talk about something."

Tiffany looked up at Daria, her parents also looked at her.

"What about?" asked Tiffany.

"It's personal." said Daria, signalling for her parents to leave.

Mr and Mrs Blum-Deckler eventually decided to do as Daria had asked.

Once they were clear, Daria sat down opposite Tiffany and asked "do you remember a guy called Nathan?"

Tiffany didn't answer, but over the next few seconds it looked like Tiffany was experiencing a panic attack.

Daria suddenly realised that what she had just done was akin to sticking a 120mm HESH shell in an oven preheated to 260°C.

She elected to remain still as a rock while Tiffany's symptoms abated.

-

Andrew stepped out of the aircraft along with the slayers, they were surrounded by soldiers all pointing assault rifles at the lot of them, a couple even had M16s.

A General stepped through and beckoned Andrew to approach him.

When Andrew met him, the General said "I'm Brigadier General Keith Chary , you'll look like you're being arrested, but what will actually happen is you will be taken to a staging area and we'll find some way to assist you against the First Evil, Willow told Riley everything."

"Okay, … Who's Riley?" asked Andrew.

-

"Tiffany, I need you to remember what you are." said Daria.

Tiffany looked up at Daria and said "I don't want to think about that."

"Tiffany, we're in a war, we're fighting for our lives, the First Evil is trying to kill every vampire slayer on the planet, you are a vampire slayer, if you do not remember, your chances of surviving this war will decrease dramatically."

Tiffany got up and walked out.

Daria followed.

She saw Tiffany heading towards an external door and said "TIFFANY, STOP!", trying to slow her down, some other vampire slayers came to assist.

"LET ME GO!" yelled Tiffany.

"TIFFANY, THERE'S 10mm OF RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT OUTSIDE, IF YOU GET THAT ON YOU, YOU'RE DEAD, … at the very least it'll give you skin problems, make you look like a leper."

Tiffany glared at Daria, then turned away, she walked off to another part of the hanger, but did not make her way to any of the exits.

"What's going on with Tiffany?" asked Quinn.

"I'm not sure I should discuss that with anyone but her, I think I know why she doesn't want to remember any of this, I'm just not sure what to do about it." said Daria.

Amanda walked up to Daria and asked "is there anything that can be done about the fallout?"

"Well, … actually, if you can make it rain, heavy, it'll clear the fallout off of all hard surfaces. I'd stay off the grass, but it would improve our mobility, and we'd be able to change the air in here without fear of drawing in radioactive dust suspensions." said Daria.

"Okay, I'm on it." said Amanda, she headed to the magical supplies and started looking for the correct book.

"I gotta get some blood." said Jane, walking up to Daria.

"Oh yeah, okay, we'll soon be mobile again, we'll see if we can find a butchers." said Daria.

"I could go out myself, remember?" said Jane.

"Yes, but I don't want you going out too far on your own, and I want the robot in close proximity to us, 'fraid you'll have to wait just a little bit longer." said Daria.

"Alright, but I gotta tell you, some of them slayers are looking awful tasty." said Jane as she walked off.

-

Henno looked at the scene. Apparently this is where a person dressed as a member of the SAS had been seen shooting people before being wrestled to the ground.

The location was a country house in Westbury, reputed to be occupied by witches. Magic or technological, though, they apparently had teleportation systems AND force fields, Henno hoped to catch them with their pants down, having one of his people held by enemy forces was never good.

It was getting dark now, and he was about to start issuing orders when he noticed a number of creatures moving towards the house.

"What the fuck are those." asked Dave.

"I don't know, but if they are enemies of our enemy, they could get the shields raised." replied Henno, he then turned to the rest of his unit and said "we're going in now, shoot any X-rays you encounter, and those things if they try anything."

Then they all formed a single column and went around to start their approach towards the corner of the building.

The strange thing was that the CSIs working the watchers council in London had confirmed that no one had been shot in the building, by the terrorists or Red Troop, so it may turn out that the involvement of the SAS was unnecessary to begin with. But when they had all teleported out, they had taken Rebecca with them for some reason.

The group was mostly female though, that could have meant her abduction was a mistake, but considering that this lot had just lost a bunch of their own to red troop, he had to assume Rebecca was in danger if alive, and if she was dead, he was going to slot the fucking lot of them.

-

Laura Menzies was now in charge of the Westbury base where Willow had teleported Giles and his group of slayers and watchers.

In the next room were seven slayers, six standing around a big heavy chair to which the seventh was tied.

What a fuck up that had been: First of all, Willow accidentally teleported a member of the special air service along with the slayers and watchers, then the SAS member had killed Giles and Kennedy, and then four other slayers before the rest could subdue her.

They had held onto her rather than teleport her back now because this place was a grade A listed building, meaning it was easily identifiable, so they were busy trying to find somewhere to go.

Suddenly two slayers burst into the room and started saying "Laura, we have a problem, we have-", before diverting between "-uber vamps-" and "-special forces-" they got out "-coming at us." before they looked at each other.

"Get everyone in here." said Laura before turning to the witches sat at the table in the room and saying "Get us to any open area at least 10 miles away."

-

Jane entered the premises, abandoned by it's owners and quickly sought out the blood stores, she got stuck into them immediately the same time as she started placing blood containers into the shopping bag she had brought with her.

She eventually headed outside to the APC with her loot and they headed out to fulfil the next part of the mission: Weapons.

Jane had upped her intake of blood considerable over the past few weeks. She found that strange, because there hadn't been much of an increase in physical activity, she was considering bringing this to Daria's attention, but being in the middle of a war made that action seem inappropriate.

Amanda had left the weather overcast after the 4 hour downpour, because it was just less trouble than clearing the sky.

The kind of weapons they were looking for was, … well, … everything: Kitchen knives, swords, crossbows, chainsaws, shotguns, Uzis, and anything that could be turned into a weapon, that would include garden sprays, vases, crowbars, explosives, anything.

Two good things about the nuke was that the fallout was keeping everyone from being in a position to stop them looting, and the EMP had wiped out just about every burglar alarm system in the state.

Now the fallout had been washed away of course, but apparently just about no one who realised this was willing to chance stepping outside, and those who didn't were still waiting for someone to tell them it's all clear.

-

"NOW WHAT?" asked Dave, as he and Henno leaned against the door keeping the monsters out.

They had exhausted 2/3rds of their ammunition on the monsters without so much as tickling them, and red troop were now scattered throughout the building.

"'BECCA?" asked Henno, hoping she knew something useful.

Rebecca looked around, then she picked up one of the katanas that the slayers had left them.

She drew the sword, inspected it, and then signalled for Henno and Dave to open the door.

Henno nodded at Dave, and they jumped back, grabbing their MP5s out of habit, letting the monsters in, Rebecca spun around and decapitated each monster as it entered.

Each monster turned to dust upon decapitation.

"Before they left, they said decapitation would work, stakes wouldn't, so I'm guessing, vampires exist, Sarge."

"Okay, slice and dice it is." said Henno as he walked over to the pile of swords and picked up two, throwing one to Dave, he then grabbed the radio and asked the location of the others.

-

The slayers, protected from identification by their glamour, made their way to the train station, they needed to hook up with the others and decide what they needed to do.

The only known source of Turok Han was hellmouths, and there was only one hell mouth in the United Kingdom, and given the short span of time in which all this had come about, that had to be the source of the Turok Han, so they would need to shut that down, the problem was that the First Evil's chief of staff, Gabriel Kent, was sure to be there.

-

Gabriel boarded the Eurostar, kind of surprised that no slayers had been sent to watch the station, but getting into a fight at the station would attract attention and delay the mission, so he decided to be happy to serve instead, there would be plenty of slayers to kill later.

-

"You saw the vampires too, right?" said Rebecca.

"Yeah, what did these people say about them?" asked Henno.

"Well, one of them referred to them as Turok Han, another referred to them as Uber Vamps. The former's probably the formal, the girl that was doing the thing with the shields, she called me a vampire slayer after I was teleported with them." said Rebecca.

"And you killed her?" Henno asked.

"Yes, that's what we do with terrorists, remember?" said Rebecca.

"Not having a go at you for it, you did well under the circumstances, but it's beginning to look like we're being played by the enemy of the watchers council. No signs of anyone having been shot or otherwise killed at the watchers council headquarters." said Henno.

"One of them wanted to try to convince me of that, another decided that would be impossible, they were afraid to let me go until they evacuated." said Rebecca.

"Looks like we need to talk to one of them then." said Henno.

-

Jane entered the hanger with about 20 katanas in her arms, the other slayers carrying shotguns and rifles with shopping bags loaded with ammunition.

"LIL' HELP WITH THE SHOPPING?" yelled Jane.

Daria and some of the slayers helped Jane get the weapons in.

"Find some blood?" asked Daria.

"Yep, should last a while. Something I wanted to ask you, is it normal for vampires to increase their consumption of blood over time?" said Jane.

"I dunno, not a lot of data's been recorded on that matter, we could ask Angel or Spike if they noticed anything if we can find them." said Daria.

"How's Tiffany?" asked Jane.

-

Tiffany kept some distance between herself and the slayers, which were scattered about the hanger in groups discussing various things, some were still in pyjamas from the mental hospitals they had been liberated from, others were dressed in normal street clothes, none of them seemed to notice her.

Was this a hallucination?

Daria or Joy, whatever her name was, had scared the crap out of her earlier with the name Nathan, it was related to the vampire stuff that had been haunting her.

The exact symptoms were a cold numb feeling with slight deafness and nausea.

She didn't know why this was, only that her mind didn't want to go there. In fact, it was fighting tooth and nail to avoid going there.

The doctor had told her that she was imagining vampires and other scary shit, but that assumption was looking shaky, this didn't feel like a hallucination. She was certain that if this was, then there would be more going on, combat, lessons, and dumb shit like the APC turning into a bus, the hanger turning into a hotel, or something weird (not that Amanda's abilities to teleport and control weather weren't weird, but for some reason it didn't fit the characteristics of a dream either).

Tiffany hadn't read anything on lucid dreaming, but she could figure out tests that would prove this was a dream, and it was beginning to look like this was reality.

"Okay, let's look at this logically, … Hallucinations are caused by abnormal brain chemistry, an imbalance of neurotransmitters, abnormal brain chemistry tends to reduce continuity to the point where it is obvious what you're seeing isn't real. If you know you're dreaming or hallucinating, it becomes pretty obvious that's what you're doing."

She looked around.

"So, aside from talking to myself and hiding from my really scary memories, I'm not insane."

She headed off to where the other Daria, the robot, was sat recharging off of one of those industrial 5 pin sockets that supplied 3 phase power.

"Urm, Robodaria?"

"Yes?"

"You're good with computers, right?"

"I could start world war 3 if you want me to prove it." said the robot, apparently the real Daria's sense of humour was incorporated into the robot's software.

"Errrm, that won't be necessary, but I do need to look at my medical files." said Tiffany.

"'Kay." the robot turned to face the wall and there was suddenly a computer screen projected onto it, the word 'Loading' and one of those spinning hourglass icons were all that were present.

Tiffany wasn't sure she wanted to do this. Any reminders could trigger, … something, she didn't know what, but it was deeply unpleasant, or her mind would have been like: 'Here you go, full details, minus the little bit lost through inactivity of the memory address'.

Her file was displayed before her, she leaned against the robot as she read it.

"MMR vaccine, … … there's nothing in here, apart from my stay at the nut house, what's going on?"

"I could attempt to access the Watchers Council computers, but that would depend on them being careless with their information, stuff like this would not be stored on any device with internet access." said the robot.

"Do it." said Tiffany.

"Stand by, … … No devices connected, the police are investigating the incident at the watcher's council head quarters, the information may not become available to an internet connection for a considerable length of time." said the robot.

"Okay, so now what?" asked Tiffany.

"What are you looking for exactly?"

"I don't know, something to jog my memory I guess."

"You are highly agitated, what is the nature of the memory you are trying to find?" asked Robodaria.

"It, … probably sucks a lot, … and some guy called Nathan is involved."

"Anything else?"

Tiffany sighed and thought, … "I got nothing."

"Right." said Robodaria, she started searching for any mention of Nathan that might be relevant.

-

"That's the building." said Vanessa Francine, one of the watchers, pointing at the building on the hill way off in the distance.

One of the slayers looked at it through the binoculars and said "Lotsa ubervamps, as is consistent with an open seal of Danthazar."

"Okay, so we gotta close it and make sure no more Ubervamps can escape." said Vanessa.

"And how do we do that?" asked Rona.

"It'll be dawn soon, that should contain any Ubervamps not already out, what we need is a force multiplier of some kind." said Vanessa.

"Force multiplier, like a crocodile tank?" asked Rona.

"What we need to do is either permanently obstruct the seal, or kill every Turok Han behind it, I don't know which is less possible, but they both have pretty narrow odds." said Vanessa.

-

"You and a Nathan went missing at about the same time." said Robodaria.

Tiffany turned to her.

"I have obtained an image of the Nathan that went missing the same time you did, he was never seen again."

Tiffany walked over to her, and said "show me."

Robodaria projected the image onto the wall.

Tiffany stared at the image.

-

"Girls are getting restless." said Amanda.

"Okay, that case, I think it's time we got in the fight." she unrolled a map covering the north American continent and they set about running a locator spell.

-

"Okay, what we got?" asked Vanessa.

"£12,000, approximately." said one of the slayers.

"We could hire a van and buy several tons of propane." said one girl.

"And how do we apply the propane?" asked Vanessa.

"Err, … " the Slayer thought about it.

This was going to take a while to plan.

-

Daria located Tiffany.

She was stood near the robot staring at the wall, Robodaria got up and stopped Daria from approaching Tiffany saying "Tiffany might not be safe to approach right now, she's catatonic and agitated. This happened when she saw a picture of a man called Nathan who went missing the same time she did a while back."

"Right." said Daria, kind of annoyed.

"Is there something I should know about?" asked Robodaria.

"Yeah, I probably should have mentioned this to you earlier, not like I can't count on you to hold confidential information. Tiffany and her watcher got abducted by a group of vampires, Nathan was turned, Tiffany was kept alive as a dessert tray. That's something her mind has been suppressing since she was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy over the Easter break. I wasn't sure how to remind her without posing a risk to herself and those around her, right now I'm considering going on a bringer hunt, I don't want to split my forces for anything other than a multiflank attack, and if I leave a small force to guard her, that force along with Tiffany would become an easy target. I therefore need to bring her with us." said Daria.

"Okay, I can outfight a slayer, so I'll move her for you if necessary, when do you want to move?"

"There are a few things that need sorting first, I'll tell you when we're ready to move." said Daria.

"Okay." said Robodaria.

Daria walked off.

-

"What the fuck are Ubervamps doing in Paris?" asked Buffy.

"Maybe the Daily Mail was right about the porosity of Britain's borders." said Dawn.

It was getting dark, and there was enough street level shade in cities like Paris for them to start moving around openly.

And the police were getting their asses kicked.

"There's a Danthazar seal in Paris." said Heather Casini, one of the watchers with Buffy.

"Then it's either bringers, or PC Kent that's responsible."

They had recently had to evade the Italian police because of the First Evil slandering them, also, there was the possibility that the First Evil would lead the police to them at their current location.

At least the American slayers and watchers had the support of the shadowy organisation formally known as the initiative, but over here, they were getting their asses kicked.

-

PC Kent boarded the train to Germany, he would open up a seal in every country to spread out the slayers as thinly as possible.

-

The slayer pushed the button on the torch and the flame appeared in the flame holder right where it was supposed to.

She then pushed the button on the gas solenoid and a stream of liquid propane shot out of the bottle strapped to her back through the flame holder and off into the distance.

The flame was initially 7 metres long, then it dropped to 1 metre.

She released the trigger and moved the nozzle down, and heard a crack, and then felt a cold sensation around her ankles.

"Aww fuck!"

She had released the button on the torch, but the liquid propane on the ground was close enough to set it off.

The three slayers with CO2 extinguishers went to work immediately as she turned off the valve on the cylinder, she then stepped away from the fire and let it burn out.

"I told you it wouldn't work." said Vanessa.

"Well, is there anything that will work?" asked Rona.

"Yeah, been thinking about this, what we need to do is clear any obstruction to the seal, then pour as much petrol into it as we can get. Now, I would prefer to do this during the day, but I don't want to give the Turok Han any more time then what they have had already. All shops will probably be closed now, so we're going to have to steal what we need, which is one petrol tanker, one flat bed truck, as much ammonium nitrate as will fit on said flatbed truck, 12 kilos of dynamite or other high explosive, at least 4 suitable blasting caps, 100 metres of 1mm2 twin flex, 1 car battery, 1 relay, and 1 alarm clock. We have everything else we need, what we'll do is we'll blow the structure off of the hell mouth, then we drive up with the tanker and start pouring it's contents into the seal." said Vanessa.

The slayers headed off to collect the equipment.

-

"Okay, and all those who have trained using axes?" asked Daria.

50 slayers raised their hands.

Daria ticked the boxes next to the names, then said "Alright, thanks."

Daria had been working on how they could distribute the weapons, they had a lot of contact weapons such as swords, axes, and knives, and firearms such as revolvers and shotguns.

The automatic firearms they had obtained were considered user friendly, but would eat ammo at such a rate that Daria didn't want to depend on them unless she could be certain they could obtain more ammunition.

The minimis were their worst problem when it came to ammunition: They were belt fed, that meant they would need to get linked ammunition or save the links. It's not that brass catchers were hard to make, but Daria would prefer not to make the weapons unwieldy if they could avoid it.

Therefore, the assault rifles and two machineguns were only going to be used for getting them out of a jam.

They would need some kind of artillery. They couldn't steal any more aircraft, but the bringers couldn't either, neither could anyone use air support, now the air force was in the air and looking for asses to kick. The bringers had probably liberated more artillery from their bases, but now the US armed forces were in the game, the bringers would probably need to get away from them sharpish.

That meant the bringers were down to portable items such as mortars, LAWs, TOWs, grenade launchers, … yeah, sure they were going to be going hand to hand.

"Okay, I want us to make a start on killing the bringers, the problem I have right now is that they have probably been stealing military weapons for a while. We don't know how well equipped they are likely to be, except probably better than us. Their arsenal is likely to include anti armour weapons, guided and unguided. … We'll need to come up with something on the way over, the only good news is that we seem to have enough contact weapons for those who are trained for them, I can distribute them now, those who are least qualified for hand to hand will be equipped with the automatic weapons, everyone else gets a shotgun."

Daria had a plan, she just had no intention of letting the First Evil in on it.

-

"More ubervamps, Luckau. I can't imagine them getting on a train unnoticed, must be the Luckau hell mouth." said Heather.

"Right, I want to take out Gabriel. I want his description circulated to all slayers and watchers, have them sit on as many train stations, airports, sea ports, and bus depots as possible, the sooner we get him, the fewer ubervamps we have to deal with." said Buffy.

"Won't the First Evil just direct the asshole around our observation posts?" asked Dawn.

"Possibly, but if we can slow this guy down, we might have a chance of getting around to developing something resembling a plan." said Buffy.

-

"I'll drive the bomb." said Vanessa.

The slayers looked at her.

They were ready to go, the flatbed loaded with ANFO (using diesel for the fuel), it was ready to go, all that needed to happen was for the piece of plastic to be pulled from between the battery contact and the battery in the alarm clock, and the second hand, located 15s away from the contacts that would operate the relay and detonate the bomb.

The driver would then activate an ejection system that had been bodged from fireworks, steel pipes, steel wire, and a parachute. The device would drag the driver out through the roof to a suitable altitude where the parachute would deploy, they were hoping it would be at least 500ft, the parachute was a ram air, so the driver would have a better chance of getting a safe distance from the hypocentre before the blast wave hit her.

The problem was that the ejection system did not look that reliable, so odds were that the driver would end up in a retrograde orbit.

"Good luck everyone." she said as she climbed into the drivers seat and strapped the parachute on, she then started the engine and headed off, the other slayers got in and on the tanker, which was rigged with a hose so they could get straight in there and make a start the instant the building was clear.

-

Moving Tiffany had been surprisingly undramatic, but she seemed out of it.

She was with Daria, Robodaria, Amanda, Quinn, Sandi, Jane, and the Blum-Decklers in the APC as they headed to Scranton, where the largest concentration of bringers was located.

Daria and Amanda were looking at a map that they were using in the locator spell, the bringers seemed to have deployed in some fields, some on vantage points, and a big old group right in the middle of them.

On the same map, they had done a locator spell to detect normal humans, and found none.

That might change next time, but next time, they should have the equipment to use normal tactics.

-

Vanessa just demolished the gatepost with the bed of the truck as she rounded the corner, that way the tanker (which is more fragile) wouldn't have to.

There were cars parked across the driveway, Vanessa just shunted them out the way, all the time, Turok Han were climbing onto the truck.

She eventually got enough cars out the way that she could just drive around them and made her way up to the side of the building.

One of the Turok Han smashed through the window and grabbed her, she felt teeth sink into her neck.

She couldn't reach the alarm clock and her vision was greying.

She pulled the wires from the clock and located the ends, she just managed to bring the contacts together before she lost consciousness.

-

Rona engaged first and drove the tanker to the front gate. The wall had been blown onto the road, but there wasn't enough debris to obstruct the truck.

There were ubervamps scattered around, but they were still able to fight, the slayers on the roof of the tanker were armed with broadswords and katanas, even if they couldn't decapitate the ubervamps from their positions, they could keep them from approaching them.

They got to the school, or more precisely, it's basement, the rest of the building had been blown clean off its foundations, the bomb had pushed the ground down about a metre for about 5 radius around the truck's perimeter.

The few ubervamps that had clung to the truck were quickly decapitated when the slayers jumped off. They got to work immediately, each had a lighter and a can of deodorant, so that any one of them could light the petrol when they got it flowing down the seal.

The ubervamps that were blown clear were returning to the seal. The slayers got the hose to the hole, and the pump on, the closest slayer pulled their lighter and deodorant can while the others formed up around her, she got the fire where it was needed and jumped back as the vapours in the passageway detonated, blowing a lot of fire into the air.

She then joined the fight to kill as many ubervamps as possible as the tanker unloaded it's cargo of accelerant into the hell mouth.

They made good progress, and ultimately cleansed the property of ubervamps.

"Now what?" asked one of the slayers?

"We call Buffy." said Rona, the apparent leader now.

-

"Ready?" asked Daria.

"Ready." said Amanda, through the respirator of her NBC kit.

Amanda then teleported out.

They were approaching the army of bringers.

Daria had to assume the satellite groups were equipped with 81mm mortars, they were set up so each position was within range of at least two of the other satellite positions and the main group, the slayers under Daria's command had at best some assault rifles, some shotguns, lots of contact weapons, and two machineguns, nowhere near the sort of armament they needed.

Amanda eventually returned and said "splash over."

"Now would someone like to tell me what just happened?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, we needed an advantage over the bringers, so I figured we could try fumigation." said Daria.

The lights that indicated the bringers locations faded and disappeared completely.

"The nerve agent is non persistent, it'll be safe by the time we get there." said Daria.

"Is that a money back if we're not completely alive guarantee?" asked Quinn.

"You could always wear a respirator, but we're sending Robodaria in ahead of us anyway, since she can sense toxicity without being affected by it." said Daria.

The robot then sneezed.

To everyone's looks, the robot said "what? It's her humour I'm programmed with." pointing at Daria.

"She probably has better ethics too."

They turned to the apparition of Helen Morgendorffer.

Quinn felt sick.

"Honestly, Daria, chemical weapons? Wasn't that the kind of warfare you criticised so strongly a few years back?"

"Hmm, I did, didn't I? 'It's Immoral, it's unethical, I won't do it under any- how much? Alright, I'm in', and that's leaving aside for the moment that she's not even in control of the apparition. Get ready to lose every acolyte you have, because as soon as I pick up their weapons, no amount of respirators on the planet will do the remainders any good, because I know what I'm doing here a lot better than you do." said Daria.

"Of course I'm not your mother, but we both know how hurt she'd be to hear you bring up her misdeeds even after she's dead, and in case your interested-" Helen's head and back bent sideways at an obviously destructive angle, with a sickening crunch "-blown off the road driving home from work. Have fun guessing how you'll die, Daria."

The First Evil then disappeared.

Quinn started heaving, she then opened the door on the side and puked onto the road.

Daria merely scowled at the map, then she told Sandi (who was driving) to stop, she then ordered Robodaria to run ahead of them.

-

"Err, just wondering, is that enough petrol?" asked one of the slayers.

"I, … damn, probably not." said Rona, remembering the size of the cavern under Sunnydale.

At that point, they heard some helicopters coming over.

Suddenly the seal was illuminated by a really bright light.

That helicopter was not the source of the noise.

They saw a big bucket come into view, the bucket had a lever that was attached to a cable going up to the helicopter (which was one of those helicopters that had two main rotors) which when pulled, unloaded the buckets contents, which happened to be 5 tons of concrete.

A bald guy and Rebecca walked up to them, they were still dressed in their combat gear, but weren't pointing guns at them.

The bald guy extended his hand in friendship saying "Hi, I'm staff sergeant Henno Garvie, I was trying to kill you earlier."

-

Illyria finally returned to the group, who had been hiding out in a forest in Washington State since the battle with Wolfram and Hart.

"The situation is most interesting. It would appear that the same time that we were engaging the forces of the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart, a large number of demons have been attacking Europe and individuals with scars in place of their eyes have been stealing weapons from this country's armed forces-"

"Excuse me: scars for eyes?" asked Spike

"Yes." said Illyria.

"Bringers." said Spike.

"Good god, the First Evil is at it again?" asked Wesley.

"The First Evil. I knew of it during my reign, it would appear in the guise of a dead person, I found it's antics most amusing." said Illyria.

"Well, it's antics are aimed at the destruction of the slayers and then humanity." said Wesley.

"Then I will need to destroy the capabilities of the First Evil." said Illyria, sounding kind of sad.

"Maybe Buffy will be more willing to accept our assistance now that we no longer under the employment of Wolfram and Hart." said Wesley.

-

"Willow, shouldn't we be doing something?" asked Andrew.

"Like what?" asked Willow.

"Errm, … I don't know, I always sucked at planning things, you were always the team's B'elanna."

Willow looked at him, then back at the map where circles and numbers had been drawn by the army guys representing bringers (red) and friendlies (blue, there weren't a lot of them because of the operation in Iraq).

Everything had been kind of static, the bringers had apparently stolen a number of self propelled SAM launchers, and since the First Evil had unlimited surveillance capabilities, they were always ready when the air force tried to eliminate them.

Another soldier reported to General Chary that a number of nerve gas shells had been stolen by a blonde witch in NBC kit a few minutes ago, and that a number of small objects matching that of the shells had appeared on radar over an enemy formation.

One of them then wiped out some of the bringer formations and replaced them with a green group.

"What does green mean?" asked Willow.

"Unknown allegiance, a large number of girls are scavenging dead enemy units for ammunition, we are trying to make contact." said the soldier with the pen.

"Leaders of Unknown formation have been identified as Joy Merryweather and Daria Morgendorffer, both wanted fugitives, mark them down as hostile." said another soldier.

"NO! FRIENDLY!" shouted Willow.

The soldier with the pens looked up and then said "'Kay." before marking them with the blue pen.

-

The slayers had gathered their haul of weapons and vehicles they had inherited from the bringers.

Some of the weapons included Hummers with 81mm mortars mounted in the back, hummers with 50cals, hundreds of M4s and M60s, some of which had grenade launchers, 20 minimis, hundreds of LAW 80s, 30 stingers, and tons of ammunition for everything.

"Now we can start waging war." said Daria.

She then asked "How many of you have trained to fight in formation?"

Several raised their hands, but most didn't. This was actually typical since before Willow activated the lot of them, it was generally assumed the slayer would be working alone, and therefore all training was designed for single slayers against everything. It looked like nobody figured that it would be useful to get them teaming up.

Daria would have to write a memo about that.

"Okay, the main point of any formation is to ensure that the enemy can not sneak up behind you, and to ensure that the enemy can not take everyone out with a single shot, that also means putting enough people on each position to ensure that if one has to change a clip or do anything that takes them out of the fight, they are not suddenly vulnerable to attack."

Daria continued her lecture, but hoped she could keep it short since there was a limit as to how much the slayers could remember, and frankly, they didn't have a lot of time, and she didn't want to give the First Evil any more time.

-

"That's another Hell mouth open." said Dawn.

"Where?" asked Buffy, her tone indicating a weary rage.

"Bosnia." said Dawn.

"Right, all slayers, new objective, procure drills, jackhammers, JCBs, anything else needed to uncover the seals, and welding gear, scrap iron, thermite, make sure no more of those bastards can be opened." said Buffy.

Dawn and everyone else in the room got on it.

-

The phone rang.

"Y'ello?" answered Daria.

Everyone watched as she listened.

"Understood." said Daria, she then hung up and turned to the slayers saying "ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP, WE JUST GOT NEW ORDERS FROM BUFFY, WE'RE OBSTRUCTING HELLMOUTHS NOW, NEAREST ONE IS IN CLEVELAND, WE'RE HEADED OVER THERE NOW, WE'LL FINISH THIS UP LATER."

Everyone headed to their vehicles, which now included more suitable combat vehicles now.

This included the Blum-Decklers, because Daria had no idea what to do with them.

-

Buffy waited in the motel car park outside Carmagnola as the bell 222 landed, from which Rona got out, leading a bald man and an old man to her.

"Buffy Summers, Colonel Aiden Dempsey and Staff sergeant Henno Garvie." said Rona.

"Hi." said Henno, giving a small wave.

"Hello." said Aiden, extending his hand for a handshake.

"Hello." said Buffy, in a clearly fucked off tone, as she took Aiden's hand and squeezed it hard saying "Giles and Kennedy were close personal friends. The only reason I won't kill you where you stand is because this wasn't your fault, just don't expect me to forget what happened any time soon, 'kay?"

"Of course." said Aiden, taking the hostility in his stride.

Buffy released his hand and said "Okay, first thing I should mention is that we are about to be discussing creatures and objects that are of a mystical nature. A lot of it will sound insane to those of you who have no experience dealing with it, there are some things that, due to time constraints, I won't be able to fully explain. I am going to have to ask you for a lot of patience when the weird stuff comes up, understood?"

"Yes ma'am." said Aiden.

"Okay, first order of business, PC Gabriel Kent, I understand he is at large." said Buffy.

"Yes." said Aiden.

Buffy started explaining everything.

-

Robodaria walked out the store with yet more purchases on the fake credit card.

Everyone else was running drills, without firing a shot, of course, since they didn't know how long their ammunition would last. She remembered the amused looks on Sandi and Quinn's faces at the thought of a couple of hundred slayers running with guns through the forest shouting "BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG, BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG.", changing empty clips for other empty clips every now and then.

They had loaded clips with them, just encase they encountered problems.

This was because a big ass army of bringers had set themselves up on the Cleveland hell mouth, that meant they couldn't do anything until they had the means to observe the bringer locations, and see what they were doing as they approached, they could locate the bringers with magics, but they didn't have a clue what they were packing, that was a big advantage the first evil had possessed over the slayers because the first evil knew what the slayers had.

-

"Okay, when approaching bringer artillery positions, the greatest danger will be when you are at the limits of their range because the projectiles spend less time in the air, we'll only use artillery on large enemy formations, but on small enemy units, we're going to drive up shooting at them, using LAWs and 50cals as the primary weapons. Keep your distance from each other, keep moving, keep unpredictable, the GPS units Robodaria is getting for you will be modified to both display known enemy positions and to display your recent locations, That way you can figure out immediately if you're getting too predictable, you all with me so far?"

No one asked anything.

"Okay, that's about all we have time for right now, get some rest, we'll be doing this tomorrow." said Daria.

Everyone dispersed, Quinn and Sandi approached Daria.

"Leadership comes naturally to you." said Sandi.

"Yeah, and I got nausea as a free gift with purchase." responded Daria.

"You hide it well." said Sandi.

"Yeah, let's see if I can hide it when it starts raining bits of my army tomorrow." said Daria.

"I'm sure it'll go fine, you've kept everyone alive so far." said Quinn.

"Yeah, so far, but we're about to introduce girls trained in swordsplay to 21st century warfare, they do have transferable skills, but, … … this is going to get ugly. They are going to have to fight while being bombarded with high explosives, while getting hit by bullets, shrapnel, while watching their friends getting shot to bits, getting burned alive, you get what I'm saying?"

Quinn looked at her and said "yeah, I do, … but it'll work out."

Daria sighed and said "it had better." before walking off.

-

Mrs Blum-Deckler watched Tiffany as Tiffany sat in the APC doing, … … well, … fuck all.

This was not an improvement, earlier she was walking around and interacting with others, now she was just standing or sitting wherever she was put staring at the ground ahead of her, unresponsive, not unlike a zombie.

Daria entered and asked "Hey Tiff, how's it going?"

After a few seconds, Daria turned to Mrs Blum-Deckler, who said "she's been like this since your spare self showed her that picture."

"Right, … " Daria sat down opposite Tiffany and asked "Tiffany, can you please say something?"

After a while, Daria reached out and placed a hand on Tiffany's shoulder.

Tiffany didn't even look up.

A few more seconds later, Daria said "Get Amanda."

-

"Sir, you need to see this." said a soldier as he entered and saluted Aiden.

Aiden took the file and looked at it, Henno leaned over to also look, and said "Shit."

"What?" asked Buffy.

"Gabriel Kent, used to be in the Special Boat Squadron." said Henno.

"Huh?" asked Buffy.

"The SBS is a close relative of the SAS, that makes him roughly equivalent to us in skills." said Aiden.

A phone rang, and Dawn answered.

"So, … trained psychopath then, right?" said Buffy.

"Battle hardened trained psychopath with mystical enhancements." said Henno.

Dawn then hung up and said "Spanish and Portuguese hellmouths are sealed, no one's penetrating without at least a ton of explosives."

"Right, and what about Paris?" asked Buffy.

"No update, I doubt it's a good idea to blow the building off the top of it with a truck bomb." said Dawn.

"We could try an assault with GMGs." suggested Henno.

"GMGs?" asked Buffy.

"Grenade machineguns." clarified Aiden.

"Decapitation works on Turok Han, I'd prefer not to have everyone using swords on a whole swarm, we use grenade machineguns to decapitate them. We could also get automatic shotguns, we got loads of explosive ammo burning a hole in the armoury." said Henno.

"I'll get right on it then." said Aiden.

"Grenade machineguns?" asked Dawn.

"Yes." said Henno.

Dawn had this grin on her face.

-

Daria was getting a touch frustrated with what she was seeing.

She had been following the Fashion Club around Lawndale High for ages.

Amanda had done this sort of magical mind meld thing (without the face grabbing which could be dangerous with a vampire slayer with mental problems), and Daria had been walking around Tiffany's mind trying to figure out a way to wake Tiffany up.

This was obviously an attempt to avoid thinking about reality. She had attempted to start a conversation with Tiffany, but the Fashion Club members had told her where to go each time she attempted to strike up a conversation.

"Amanda Daria, receiving, over?"

'Daria, Amanda, go ahead.'

"Request extraction, over."

-

"Well?" asked Quinn.

"Direct conversation didn't work, the Fashion Club members in her dream won't allow me to approach." said Daria.

"I could try." said Quinn.

Daria thought about it for a second.

"Pleaaaaaaase?" asked Quinn.

Daria looked at everyone in the room, then told Mr Blum-Deckler to "close the door."

Once the back door on the APC was closed, Daria said "What I am about to tell you is a confidential report made by Tiffany shortly after the incident with Illyria's near warp core breech. You do not tell anyone any of this unless you absolutely have to, okay?" everyone nodded, then Daria continued "some time before Willow activated all the potential slayers, Tiffany was captured along with her watcher, she was kept alive as a sort of dessert because her blood was sweeter than the average human. Her watcher was turned, now, her report only mentions them tying her up and feeding off her, but there may have been further abuse she kept to herself. Quinn, if you're successful, you will most likely see what happened to her."

Quinn thought about it, then eventually said "She's my friend."

Daria nodded and then nodded at Amanda.

-

Quinn found herself sat at a desk next to Sandi, Stacy and Tiffany sat behind, Sandi was talking to her, but wasn't noticing Quinn's attention was focused on Tiffany.

'Quinn Daria receiving, over?'

That was Daria's voice in her head.

"Errm, Daria?"

'Just think about who you want to address and think the words.' said Daria.

'Daria, this is Quinn, check, check, check.'

'Quinn Daria, Signal's good. I'll be watching, you'll have to be subtle for this to work, too direct, and she'll reject any influence from you, over.'

'Roger wilco, and, stuff, out.'

Quinn sat back and tried to think of a way to carry out her mission.

After a few minutes, she asked 'Quinn to Daria, request advice, over.'

'Quinn Daria, try singing something, over.'

'Like what?'

There was silence, then Daria said 'Try 'Torn', over.'

Quinn nodded and started singing the song.

Sandi and Stacy didn't seem to notice.

Quinn got to the chorus "I'm all out of faith, this is how I feel, I am Cold and I am shamed, lying naked on the floor-" at about this time, the classroom turned into a dank, bare apartment with aged furniture and bare floors.

Quinn looked around, it was just her in this room, she sang "-'Till I see dumb shit start happenin', dumber than Vanilla Ice trying to rap again." under her breath.

"NO!"

Quinn turned to see Tiffany on the floor next to her feet, wearing nothing, arms bound behind her, chain around her neck connecting her to a floor beam, there were bruises and cuts on her body, some dirt had accumulated on places.

Quinn knelt down ant sat Tiffany up, causing Tiffany to look at her saying "Quinn, what are you doing here?"

"Getting you out." said Quinn, as she tried to pull apart the knots in the rope.

"Quinn, unless you can pick the lock on this chain or cut the beam, don't bother, just go before they get back." said Tiffany.

"Or you could just wake up." said Quinn.

"What?" asked Tiffany.

The door opened, and four vampires entered, all game faced, they looked at Quinn, one of them asked "Who's your friend, Tiffany?"

'Amanda Daria, can we help them, over?'

'Daria Amanda, stand by, over.'

"I'm a vampire slayer, so fuck off before I stake you." said Quinn.

The four of them surrounded Quinn.

'Amanda?' prompted Daria.

'Nothing's working, I can't do anything.'

"For a vampire slayer, you smell awfully scared." said one vampire.

"Smells can be deceiving." said Quinn, looking confident that she wasn't about to get her ass kicked.

On of the vampires grabbed Quinn's sides from behind, causing Quinn to shriek and spin around, she then tripped over Tiffany and fell on her ass.

'Quinn, run, you can return later when you're better prepared.' said Daria.

Quinn didn't move as the vampires crowded around her.

'QUINN, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? FUCKING RUN NOW!'

The vampires pulled Quinn to her feet, and started feeling her up.

'AMANDA, A LITTLE HELP PLEASE?' said Daria.

'THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO? THE DAMN MAGIC WON'T FUCKING WORK!'

The vampires started to remove Quinn's clothes.

'DAMMIT TIFFANY, WAKE THE FUCK UP!'

-

Sandi watched as Daria, Amanda and Quinn sat there like statues, the way Tiffany had been all this time.

This was getting seriously boring for her.

There was a knock on the door.

Mr Blum-Deckler answered it, it was Robodaria.

"Procurement of supplies completed."

"Good, I'll tell Daria when she comes out of it." said Sandi.

"Out of what?" asked the robot.

"She, Quinn and Amanda are trying to fix Tiffany, they're doing this magic mind meld thing, apparently Tiffany was pretending she was in High school or something." said Sandi.

"WE GOT MOVEMENT!" shouted one of the slayers.

Robodaria and Sandi headed out to where the slayers were watching the map.

The dots were indeed moving, Jane joined them.

"What's the situation with Daria?" asked Jane.

"Still in the trance." said Sandi.

"Let's wake her up then shall we?" said Jane as she headed to the APC.

They got there and Jane and Sandi grabbed Daria and Amanda, trying to shake them out of their trance.

Nothing was happening.

"The fuck's wrong with them?" asked Jane.

Robodaria touched each one, walking her fingers over their heads and said "they're all out of it, the only way to bring them out would be to directly stimulate their brain, but that is not something I would recommend, considering what happened to Tiffany last time."

"The First Evil must know Amanda's out of action, that's why it's attacking." said Jane.

"So what do we do?" asked Sandi.

"You and the Blum-Decklers are going to erect a shield, Amanda can take it down when she's back in the game, make sure you enclose enough air to last a while." said Jane as she entered and grabbed any weapons she could see.

"What are you going to do?" asked Sandi.

"Kill a few bringers." she then grabbed the stuff Daria and Amanda had used last time from Daria's pocket and handed it to Sandi, before heading outside.

Sandi and Mr Blum-Deckler followed Jane, Sandi saying "Wait, I want to help."

Jane turned to them saying "You can help by erecting that shield and keeping them and yourselves alive, now get to it." she then ran to the areas where the slayers were sleeping or sitting around talking shouting "EVERYONE WAKE UP! WE'RE ABOUT OT COME UNDER ATTACK!"

All the slayers started waking up and those that were awake were going around waking others.

Sandi and Mr Blum-Deckler were watching all of this, then they snapped out of it and got on the spell.

-

"Where are those bringers going?" asked Riley.

"They're advancing on Daria's group." said one of the soldiers.

"What's Daria doing?" asked Riley.

"She seems to be in her APC, two of the hostages are casting some sort of spell."

"Can I see?" asked Willow.

"Sure, come over here." said the soldier.

Willow looked at the screen and recognised the spell as a "spacial shield, Daria probably looked it up after the thing with Amy. Blocks all EM radiation, will withstand just about anything. Something must be seriously wrong if she's got Sandi and that guy on it."

"That's Tiffany Blum-Deckler's dad." said the soldier.

"I need to contact Amanda, excuse me." said Willow, she then found a spot that would not obstruct foot traffic and went into a trance to astrally project.

As Willow managed to make contact with Amanda, she got a look at the situation.

Amanda was trapped in a mind meld spell with Daria, Quinn and Tiffany.

She could also sense everyone's distress.

She got a look at the situation Amanda and Daria were observing, Tiffany was reliving a memory, and had trapped Quinn with her, Quinn was being raped and fed off of by some vampires.

'Amanda Willow, report, over.'

'Willow, I can't break this spell, I can't do anything. You should leave, if you get stuck too, that's another witch out of action.'

'What are you doing in there anyway?'

'I was trying to help Tiffany, Daria and Quinn were helping, but it all went wrong somehow. I've been trying to extract Quinn, or wake Tiffany, or leave so I can look for something I can use, I can't do anything, if you can leave, do it now.'

'The First Evil is attacking you now.'

'Acknowledged, you know what to do, do it.'

'Received, leaving now, out.'

Willow woke up to find a couple of soldiers looking at her, they startled slightly when she awoke, she said "'scuse me." as she pushed through them, she picked up a radio off the charger rack near the door and said "I'm going outside, what channel should I put this on?"

"four." said Riley, also picking up a radio, he then asked "what's going on?"

"I'll explain it later, just tell me what's happening as it happens." said Willow as she picked up some of her gear and headed out.

-

Robodaria had all the equipment distributed and was now launching the UAVs from their concealed locations.

It seemed that the First Evil had one major blind spot: It couldn't lock onto machines.

It needed people to see and hear, it needed life forms to lock on to, it also couldn't listen into telepathic communications without the person being in a sleep state.

Assuming this was true, the fact that she was going to use symbology on a GPS screen to represent the various threats and not give them a direct view over the battlefield should keep the First Evil from locating the UAVs.

She directed the UAVs over the leading dots, and got a look at them, they were in humm-vees equipped with 50cals, 81mm mortars, and other infantry weapons, the same equipment as the slayers.

The fact Amanda was out of action had cost them the advantage of being able to use telepathic communications to command their forces, the slayers had radios on them as a backup plan.

The slayers were driving off to forward positions, she directed them into a formation that would balance the need for effective firepower against the need to reduce the possibility of multiple kills with single shots from the enemy.

She had rigged the GPS units so she could send graphic instructions to the slayers individually, assign them to specific targets. She had some using mortars, directing three at a time to a single target to improve the probability of a kill as far as possible, but the First Evil was doing the same.

-

"First shots are being fired." said Riley.

Willow would have preferred a countdown, but that would have betrayed her objective to the First Evil.

She completed the spell and braced herself.

There were a couple of other witches with her, they would restrain her hijacked magics as far as possible, the theory was that if she could distract the First Evil, eat up some of it's attention, so it would have a harder time operating it's bringers, which were dependant on it for any activity right down to breathing. They might not be able to kill the First Evil, but they could hopefully impede it's command capability.

-

Quinn was now tied to one of the beds. That probably wasn't necessary, considering if she so much as attempted to crawl, she'd conk out. The vampires were washing her blood down with Tiffany's.

It didn't help that Quinn knew this wasn't real. As far as her perceived body was concerned, she had just been raped and bitten by four vampires, and this was probably going to stay with her for a while. The pain in her lower orifices felt real, the bites felt real, the tears stinging her eyes felt real, the taste of semen, … well, that's probably how it tastes too.

They had even had Tiffany sit on her face and had broken a couple of Quinn's fingers to get her to, … … it suddenly occurred to Quinn that since it was Tiffany's mind that was generating all of this, it was true to say that it was Tiffany who was fucking raping her.

"Tiffany, if I get out of here, you can fucking rot in this dream state."

Quinn's voice was weak, but loud enough to reach Tiffany.

Tiffany didn't even apologise.

'Quinn Daria, it's not her fault, okay?'

'BULLSHIT! … I GET OUT OF HERE, I'M FUCKING SHOOTING HER!' thought Quinn, furious she would take Tiffany's side.

'Quinn, I'm sorry you had to go through that, I thought the worst that would happen is you'd see this shit.'

'Yeah, well, next time Tiffany ends up trapped in a scary dream, fucking leave her to rot. In fact, be sure to feed her so much that when she wakes up, she's one of those hyper obese women who have to be lifted out of bed with a crane, in full view of a media circus, she'd fucking hate that, wouldn't she?'

Daria didn't try any further placations.

'Quinn, it just occurred to me, this isn't normal for a dream, and I don't just mean the fact you're both not waking up at the scary bit, that room hasn't changed since it's first appearance.' said Daria.

'So?'

'When I dream, everything distorts, things change scale, appearance, form, cars turn to shopping trolleys, most people find that happening in their dreams too. Why isn't that happening here?'

'I don't know, maybe Willow can figure it out when she's done distracting the First Evil.'

-

The enemy command system had been slowed somehow.

Robodaria couldn't divert any attention to researching this at the time, she would have to review the data later and see if she could replicate or enhance the effect in a future battle.

20 slayers had been killed in this battle so far, a couple of humm vees had been hit by mortars, 4 girls in each one, first was struck on the front wheel arch, off road, the loss of that wheel had caused it to flip over, the next round had set off all the ammunition, second had been struck in the roof over the drivers seat, killing the girls by mincing their vital organs with the compression wave instantly.

A third humm vee had been struck just under the radiator by a LAW 80, it had flipped over, spilling the mortar rounds and LAW80s out of the back, when it landed on those, some of the detonators were crushed, causing detonations and sympathetic detonations of enough ammunition to kill the girls on the vehicle.

Another eight slayers had been shot by bringer machinegun fire, one of Daria's fears had been that the slayers would hesitate if the girl next to them got shot, but that fear had proven unjustified, they had kept going.

And now they were on a roll, they had been cleaning up the battlefield initially, and now they were just slaughtering the bringers wholesale.

Robodaria saw a couple of bringer crews operating M777s (155mm towed guns), that explained why she had been detecting the shock profiles of high velocity shells in the battle.

She needed to get those decommissioned urgently, because if the First Evil got those M777 crews working at full speed, they were going to incur enormous casualties.

Luckily, the ratio of friendlies to enemies had increased so much that she projected arrival at the M777 sites within 10 minutes.

The enemy was starting to retreat though.

Robodaria could not allow them to escape with the M777s, she altered the formation as best she could to ensure an early arrival at the bringer firebases.

The First Evil had apparently realised what Robodaria was up to, and started throwing as many bringers at her formation as possible.

The First Evil was obviously having trouble concentrating on the task at hand, because the formation concentrated too much on the tip of the formation. Robodaria had the forces present to encircle the enemy formation with a pincer, the tips of which eventually reached the M777 crews. The guns were captured intact along with their ammunition, she had the slayers on scene capture the weapons and set them up to start hitting the retreating bringers, which would not be out of range.

Some of the retreating bringers stopped.

Robodaria didn't have a view of these positions yet, but she felt it most likely that the three groups that had stopped were other M777 crews, she had to get those bringers killed as soon as possible.

She quickly ran through how to operate the weapons with the slayers on the scene while also doing her best to direct other slayers along the retreating column of bringers, she feared the bringer artillery positions would be operational before the slayers got off their first shots.

The furthest two positions got blown up, she saw the final one come into view of her UAVs, it fired at the southern slayer crew, she ordered those slayers to run while directing her other crew to take out the final position.

The other bringer positions came into view.

The guns were destroyed.

The remaining bringers were steadily killed off.

The battle was completed.

Robodaria ordered the slayers to start collecting ammunition off the enemy as return to base.

-

Daria couldn't stop watching.

This wasn't due to some morbid fascination, it was instead due to the fact she had no eyelids to close here, as she would if she had a physical form in the dream.

It appeared the First Evil was out to break Quinn, or maybe the target had been Daria, but because Daria couldn't trip the mine, and Quinn could, …

She had been concerned Quinn would have to watch this stuff happening to Tiffany, not experience it for herself, and everything here probably felt real, and without the ability to wake up, it would leave a big mark.

There was no way Quinn was going to forgive her for this.

'Amanda Willow receiving, over?'

'Willow Amanda go ahead, over.'

'The bringer forces that attacked you are all dead, 26 slayers dead, I'm now looking for a way to help you, hang in there, out.'

-

"Those bringers are going to start moving soon." said Riley.

"The robot's in charge now." said Willow.

"What will the robot do?" asked Riley.

"Carry out the mission to the best of it's abilities." said Willow, as she kept reading her magic book.

"Any way we can get into contact with it?" asked Riley.

Willow grabbed her cell phone and scrolled down it's memory until she found it and tapped the call button, the robot answered immediately, and Willow said "Dariabot, Riley Finn wants to talk to you." before handing the phone over to riley and getting back to her book.

"Dariabot, Riley here, we need to co-ordinate."

"The First Evil will know what we're up to, my mission is to obstruct the Cleveland hell mouth as permanently as is practical. Use any opportunity that presents to kill bringers or keep them occupied, I need to talk to Willow again." said the robot.

"'kay." said Riley, handing the phone back to Willow.

"Willow here."

"I am moving my forces to Cleveland now, how long do you estimate it will take for you to free Amanda?"

"I don't know, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for, I'm working as fast as I can, but it could take ages."

"Understood, next time you project to Amanda, tell her I couldn't leave anyone to guard her, I am having to resort to strength in numbers."

"Okay, bye." Willow hung up.

-

"We are not going to leave them there, are we?" asked Jane as they walked to the converted fire appliance.

"I can't split my forces in this situation, the shield they are using is the same one that survived a 15MT detonation, it will protect them against anything the bringers are likely to have access to, Willow will astrally project to them and tell them what's going on, but we have a job to do, I have to get on it now."

They got on board the appliance, most of the other slayers had already departed, having gathered a good sized haul of bringer ammo (it was smaller than the previous haul because this time the bringers had the opportunity to use some of it)

The only dead slayers they had brought back were the ones that had been shot, due to the fact they were the only ones already on an active vehicle. The ones that had been blown up were inconvenient to pick up at this time, burying the dead was way down Robodaria's list of priorities.

Jane got in front of Robodaria and said "You can not be serious."

"Jane, I don't want anything to happen to them either, but I have a mission to accomplish, and I want to get to Cleveland before the bringers do, it'll enhance our survivability. Having the bringers attack Daria behind that shield would be pointless for the First Evil, even if it does not consider this to be so, the bringers can not penetrate it anyway."

"I'm not leaving her." said Jane, as she walked back to the shield.

"Jane, that won't protect them, the bringers will simply hit you with mortar fire on their way in. Do you think Daria will be happy to find your flamethrower sitting on a pile of dust when she takes down the shield?"

Jane thought about it, then she sighed and joined Robodaria, saying "We're coming back for her once that hellmouth's closed."

-

"I don't use these." said Buffy, looking at the weapon in her hands.

The weapon was a shot-machinegun designed by someone Buffy thought must have some sort of mental problem, because it looked like a cross between an M-16 and a tommy gun that used shotgun rounds.

"It's the 21st century, get with it." said Rebecca.

A team of slayers had been assembled with the SAS's red troop, they were about to hit the Paris hell mouth.

Buffy's attitude to firearms didn't just irritate Rebecca, it irritated the other slayers, since there were a number of critters that they dealt with that firearms would work on.

What irritated Buffy was Daria's influence on the slayers, just about every vampire slayer that Daria had interacted with had started looking into firearms, Dawn's delight at the concept of a grenade machinegun (an even more demented weapon than the one she was holding) was just another symptom of this.

"I just don't want my people becoming too reliant on them is all." said Buffy.

"SAS does all kinds of unarmed combat, the firearms training, while extensive, is a side dish, what's your point?" said Rebecca.

"Well, … " Buffy sighed, she couldn't think of a real reason for her discomfort with firearms, she cocked the automatic shotgun, inadvertently pointing it at Henno (making him frown) and said "we doing this or what?"

-

Robodaria finished the last weld fixing the gun to the bed of the truck and headed over to where a couple of slayers had been starting on the magazine, which was looking to be in good shape considering they were doing this with the trucks moving at 192km/h (120mph).

The two M777s were being mounted on the back of two flatbed trucks they had swiped, using equipment and materials they had also swiped, thanks to the government advice for everyone to hole up and the news that a 15MT nuke was set off near Lawndale, they had pretty much free reign. The cops hadn't given the convoy being led by a SWAT APC earlier any problems, and now they were being ordered to let the current convoy through by the army, which was severely understaffed at home.

She wondered if the First Evil was planning to go overt anyway, or if getting the president to invade Iraq was more a long term strategy (that assumed that the president needed any prodding from a malevolent spirit disguised as Jesus Christ)

It occurred to Robodaria that the government might not let them get away with all the thefts they were carrying out of both civilian and military equipment and consumables, but survival came first.

A large number of mortars were going to be hoisted on top of some office and apartment blocks to extend their range, she didn't consider such an operation worth carrying out with the M777s, they would not be able to do it fast enough and fit any mechanism that would give them any field of fire beyond the guns trim, she needed the guns to be manoeuvrable in order to use them.

The aim of her strategy was to keep the bringers out of Cleveland while they sorted the seal, the bringers could possibly do the same thing with their guns that Robodaria was doing, and would probably have better aim and a faster rate of fire, but if the first evil was forced to adapt, that was more time for the slayers to work.

She noted that the slayers working on the magazine had only done tacking welds, and had gone a little heavy with the current.

Only one of the slayers in the entire group had any serious welding experience, she was a coded welder in fact, and she was supervising the work on the other truck, the one from which she was hearing Janes steady stream of swear words.

The only welding gear they had been able to swipe was 5 single phase MMA transformers, 3 generators (to one of which she was hooked up), and 500 2mm cellulosic electrodes.

As soon as they were in position, they would hopefully be able to load these trucks up with the ammunition, and hopefully just telling these girls how to operate these guns would be enough, because that was all they were getting.

The M777s would only be used against like artillery, because they didn't have as much ammunition for them as they did for the mortars, the mortars would be used on everything else, but two guns would not be adequate coverage, even with Lake Erie behind them, they had a 225° field of fire to cover, the M777 could only trim 22.5° left or right, meaning each could only cover 45°, at most, she could cover only 40 of their field of fire at any one time.

She would probably have to attack first, she could hit and run, in their current state, the bringer gun crews could only move their guns if they were unable to fire, hopefully the advantage would last long enough for it to be of use.

"Robodaria Janet, All elevated mortars are in position, over." reported Janet Kendal, one of the slayers she had moving the Mortars to the elevated positions.

"Janet Robodaria, acknowledged, out." she transmitted back.

The UAVs were being refuelled by some of the slayers, and would be up in the air soon, they had a flight time of 2 hours, when that expired, they had to be in a safe location.

-

The First Evil had not expected things to go this wrong with it's plan, Gabriel had kept from telling it how it's impatience had been the source of it's problems.

Seriously, the First Evil was totally immortal: Had, like, forever to carry out it's objectives, why not wait until everyone forgets it exists?

Anyway, he didn't care, violence was fun, as was opening all these seals and releasing all these hoards of Turok Han.

Just a pity that the Europeans had suddenly gotten a clue.

The Americans were having trouble because the First Evil had built up the majority of it's bringers there, America having the space to hide them effectively, and the depletion of armed forces to give them a chance, but it seemed that the slayers under Daria's command were kicking the bringers asses, due to that robot. It was giving the slayers the same advantage the first evil had with it's bringers. Plus that dyke witch Willow had managed to deplete the First Evil's attention sufficiently to bring down the bringer's kill ratio to fuck all.

The Turok Han, on the other hand, were not dependant on the First Evil for direct control, the First Evil just needed to tell them where the good guys were, they would do the rest.

Except the last time the First Evil had tried using Turok Han against an army of slayers, it barely managed to kill any, and that was with superior numbers, and without the slayers being armed with grenade launchers.

Opportunities to steal weapons from military bases had dried up completely, the Americans had relocated all their weapons to forward bases, and the Canadians didn't have the shortages of personal that the Americans had developed, so they were going in with axes, shotguns, and whatever other civilian sourced weapons they could find.

This was not going to end well.

"We need a serious advantage if this is going to work." he said aloud.

"Yes we do, they aren't looking for you right now, you could go on ahead and do something to them." said the First Evil.

"Yeah, I know, I just need to figure out what, … it's a city, so it'll have drains, an electric grid, … water, … " He chuckled as he thought of something.

"Knew you'd think of something." said the First Evil.

-

Robodaria watched as the bringer forces just stood there.

Their guns were spread far enough apart that if she went after one group, the other would be able to close on the city and start shooting at the elevated mortars, so an assault was out until they were done obstructing the seal.

She was also aware that mortal enemies hated stalemates, they preferred to sort it out, so she had to project possible ways for the first evil to break the stalemate.

She was positioned in the centre of the city with two slayers and Jane on the converted fire appliance which they had entirely subverted by converting the water cannon into a flamethrower. It would make an excellent antipersonnel weapon, but it was lightly armoured (after modifications consisting of two layers of 6mm Medium Carbon Steel plates spaced 3cm apart and 5cm from the vehicles skin), only equipped to stop 15mm high velocity rounds, resist 40mm high explosive rounds and 60mm mortar rounds, but 81mm would be too loud and would start damaging equipment and inflicting blunt force trauma upon the human occupants. And forget resisting LAWs, they would need reactive armour to stop those, and they just didn't have the time or the quantity of explosives needed to make it.

It was better armoured than the hummers, but nowhere near as manoeuvrable, so it wasn't going to be used in any frontal assault.

Bit of a white elephant really, she had only made the thing because she could, any weapon being better than none, and they had had a rather pathetic arsenal at that point.

But it was spacious inside enough for her to use as a mobile command post.

They had raided a number of rail yards for rails, diamond impregnated chop saws, and thermite and were using it to obstruct the seal, the bringers would need a thermal lance to get through.

For the reason that the bringers would most likely use thermal lances, they were also throwing in gravel. The rails would add to the volume of metal, the iron from the thermite would settle inside the gaps, and the gravel once incorporated into the obstruction, would resist the thermal lance, with nothing for the oxygen to react to, the only heat available would be coming from the lance and the iron above, the molten minerals would just sit there sapping heat.

Robodaria had no intention of allowing the bringers the time to completely clear the seal, she would leave the city to assault the main body using both hummers and the M777s simultaneously, she could allow the bringers to take the city while she went after their towed guns and other siege forces, and then clear the city of them.

Only this time, the bringers would probably be taking hostages just to mess things up. She had not formulated any serious tutorial to prepare the slayers for that possibility because the First Evil would only adapt its strategy, but slayers had better aim than the average human, so odds were that human shields would be a major hindrance to bringers, and not a help. Especially considering that a large number of potential hostages would be armed to the teeth legally or not, and holed up in strong locations. So all chasing hostages would do is keep the bringers where the slayers could shoot them.

Of course, some civilians would be easier to take hostage than others, so the First Evil would do it anyway if the opportunity arose, the main concern is what the First Evil intended to do about Willow, since it was her occupying the First Evil's attention that had caused it's severe losses earlier.

Could it do something about that?

And if it couldn't, could it get another entity to work on it's behalf.

-

"Miss Rosenberg, phone call from Buffy Summers." said one of the soldiers.

She accepted the phone from the soldier.

Right now Riley was talking with the joint chiefs about getting some of those prototype missiles with those multimode warheads she had heard of on that documentary on, … something to do with the military, she couldn't remember what, just that apparently nothing they had in bulk right now was quite up to the job. The First Evil rendering any stealth system or tactics they had worthless, the only thing the First Evil had trouble tracking was machines, but humans who operated machines, who, for instance, programmed tomahawks to hit something, would give the game away instantly.

One of the more practical ideas was to fit some SR71s with AGM62 walleyes or AGM65 Mavericks, since they could take advantage of speed and altitude to hit enemy positions. But there were problems with both the aircraft and the weapons, and the fact that just about any high explosive used by their weapons would cook off if it were carried externally at mach 3, thus defeating the proposal, and U2s, while having altitude, did not have speed.

"Willow here."

"Gabriel Kent, the First Evil's chief acolyte, was seen heading to Canada, there are a number of seals up there, can you spend anyone to chase him?" asked Buffy.

"I don't think I can, I'll talk to Riley about it." said Willow.

"How's it going over there?" asked Buffy.

"Okay, well, Daria, Amanda and Quinn, Daria's sister, got trapped in Tiffany's mind somehow. I'm trying to get them out. Meanwhile, Dariabot appears to be commanding the slayers under her command effectively, they're on the Cleveland seal, don't know how long it will take for them to be done with it. Dariabot seems to be accumulating the biggest body count." said Willow.

"Okay, what's that thing about Daria, Amanda and Quinn being trapped in Tiffany's mind?"

"Tiffany went catatonic, Amanda and Daria started having a poke around trying to snap her out of it. They then had Quinn assist, but something went wrong and now they can't get out. They're safe, I just don't know how to free them, I'm going through just about every magical text I can think of, but nothing feels or looks like the spell I'm seeing." said Willow.

"Okay, I'm not sure what I can do to help if anything, but we're getting things under control on our end, so if you think of something, maybe we'll be available soon." said Buffy.

"Right thanks." said Willow, she hung up and realised something about Buffy's catatonia shortly after Glory took Dawn might hold the key somehow.

But right now, it eluded her, so she just got on with briefing Riley.

-

Sandi kept searching through the radio channels.

"I don't get it." said Sandi.

"The shield is blocking everything, remember?" said Mr Blum-Deckler.

"Yeah, but shouldn't it stop static too?"

"Oh yeah." he said.

"This is stupid, how long are they going to take?" asked Sandi.

They all looked at Amanda, Daria, Quinn and Tiffany.

-

Captains John Handler and Irma Travis inspected the bombs rigged to the underside of the SR71, looking at the welds that held the hard points to the airframe.

Apparently this was safer than rigging the F12's internal bays for bombs, something about the airflow across the bomb bay doors being a problem.

The welds looked neat and everything, but they didn't like the possibility that they'd rip chunks of the airframe off the vehicle when they made their bomb runs.

They looked at the bombs themselves.

The weapons had been covered in a mild steel skin which held the firebricks onto the bombs, and the lugs were protected from the airflow, so the explosives would be protected from the heat. The skin also served to give the weapons frontal stealth, by the time there was any part the enemy could lock onto pointed at them, the SR71 would be moving away too fast for the SAMs to have a hope of hitting them, this was exactly why the SR71 was built like this.

The bombs were mk84s fitted with paveway guidance systems which was also protected by the case. When the bombs were down to mach 2 in velocity, a length of primacord would be used to strip off the steel case, by which time they hoped to have a laser painting the SAM sites, as soon as that was dealt with, they could move in with other aircraft.

Of course there was a slight possibility that the primacord would damage the paveway guidance system, but this was the only plan they got.

-

Gabriel opened the hatch and shone his flashlight into the water tower's tank, trying to locate the pipe.

The bottom was lined with gravel, there was probably a layer of coarse sand under that, this to filter the water as it left the tower no doubt, this would have to be cleared if his plan was to succeed.

"Yep" he said as unpacked the scuba gear he had with him and prepared to enter tank, he had expected this, and was just a touch annoyed that Turok Han couldn't take sunlight. Not that carrying all that aluminium powder was a problem, he had tied all the sacks together and carried them up in one go, he was going to feed it into the pipes as the water drained, along with some initiators, and then block the pipe. The powder would then settle densely enough for the detonation wave to travel through it.

Hopefully the charge he planted on the water pipes on the other side of town won't get detected until he was ready to move.

-

The slayers were getting bored, those that weren't creating the obstructions over the seal that was.

Robodaria was concerned that they would have trouble getting moving again. She was concerned about the lack of movement on the part of the bringers, because they weren't doing anything to improve the mobility of their towed artillery.

This wasn't right, the First Evil was up to something, but had successfully hidden it's activities from Robodaria's view.

She decided to make contact Riley and ask for an intelligence update, perhaps there was something he could shed light on.

-

"Riley here."

"Yeah, Robodaria here, request intelligence update."

"Not much to say, a Gabriel Kent has gone to Canada, apparently he's the First Evil's helper, Buffy and an SAS troop are headed after him in pursuit."

"Where in Canada?" asked the robot.

"They didn't say, the Canadian police might have had sightings, hang on."

"I just got the reports, he opened the Elmira hell mouth last night, and was last seen at Wheatley with a large formation of Turok Han, they are headed this way."

"Right, … well, anything else?"

"Yes, tell Willow to be ready in three hours, double time." the robot hung up.

-

"Anyone else feeling congested?" asked Sandi.

"Yes." said Mr Blum-Deckler.

"CO2." said Mrs Blum-Deckler.

"Great, we need to either take down the spell, or scrub the air." said Sandi.

"What if there are those Bringer guys out there?" asked Mrs Blum-Deckler.

"Okay, Oxygen spells it is." said Sandi, starting to look through the books.

"Errrm, … aren't some of those spells dangerous?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.

"Isn't ass fixing, … " started Sandi.

"Asphyxiation." offered Mr Blum-Deckler, he then said "Point taken." and grabbed a book and started looking for a useful spell, after a few minutes, he said "anyone got a Latin dictionary or a Latin learning spell?".

-

"Robodaria, Lucy, several explosions have occurred along the edges of the city simultaneously, several water mains appear to have been severed, request advice, over."

Robodaria redirected one of the UAVs to look at the areas were the damage had occurred.

Why sever water mains?

It's not like that will have a serious effect on the availability of water, and there would be tons of soft drinks available in the event it were impacted. The slayers couldn't afford to take the time to shower anyway. This might harass the inhabitants of Cleveland, but they had, assuming they followed advice from various survival magazines, stored their own water supplies anyway, so what was the point?

She looked at a map of the Cleveland water grid, the water would be coming from a number of water towers.

She directed the UAV to look at the towers.

One of them had an open hatch.

"The water leaks have just died down."

The capacity of the towers exceeded that which would have been expended through the holes in the pavement. The numbers were all wrong, what use would blowing the pipes be that far from- they needed a high velocity in the pipes, to carry something.

Explosives, and possibly a chemical weapon.

"Narice, relocate to waypoint 1, target the water tower marked on your display, Lucy, you should have line of sight on that tower, shoot into the open hatch."

She heard the acknowledgements.

She also saw the bringers start to move into the sectors that had been protected by the M777 Narice was driving, she had confidence that she could carry out this strike, and then take out the advancing bringers.

Reports of explosions started coming in, the origins of the explosions there thought by the slayers to be the water mains.

-

"They're targeting the tower." said the First Evil.

"Time on target?" asked Gabriel, not stopping what he was doing, which was hooking up the devices he had made for production of massive quantities of hydrogen cyanide.

"Mortars incoming now, an M777 is being sent to target you, I'm sending bringers to take them out, but they are not going to make it, get out of there."

There was an explosion in the water tower, but it didn't do anything to Gabriel because he was too far from the hatch.

"TIME ON TARGET?" repeated Gabriel as he opened the valves on the devices leading to the pipe, he then pulled the switches on the devices, this shattered the sulphuric acid bottles and set off the thermit charges designed to accelerate the production of hydrogen cyanide.

-

The gun was in position, the slayers adjusted the gun's aim the same time as they loaded it.

Robodaria directed them to sever the pipe at the ground, they would have to keep firing until the pipe was severed, she didn't know how quickly the chemical weapon being used could be deployed, it was probably being sent into the water grid now.

The girls were getting the ammunition off at a rate of 1 every 5 seconds.

Gabriel climbed up the back of the ladder and waited for the next shot to strike before swinging around and exiting the tower in no time flat, he then ran for the edge of the tower and jumped off, deploying a parachute.

He kept the scuba gear on him because if his mission was successful, he'd be up to his eyeballs in hydrogen cyanide, not lethal with the First Evil's enhancements, but it would still bite, so he would use the scuba gear to avoid breathing it.

He landed on a street perpendicular to the attack vector of the gun, but he immediately saw a number of slayers driving at him, they opened up with 50cals. He evaded, landing through a shop window, he exited the building and shoved a dumpster ahead of him as he ran out into the street. The hummer stopped in front of the store, and two slayers with M16s came around the back.

He managed to run down one with the dumpster, the other was within arms reach as planned, enabling him to deflect the weapon as he grabbed her neck and pushed her vertebrae out of line with his top two fingers. The other slayer popped into view, but he killed her before she could get off a shot. He then ran around the dumpster and hit the second hummer with the loaded grenade before they had a clue he was there.

The two slayers that had gone in through the front of the shop came out. One was dead before she could shoot, the second got a single burst off, wounding him before his shots killed her. He then ran to them, grabbing what ammo he could before he had to move, which was about 7 seconds from now, because the mortar on the roof of that skyscraper was now scoping his position.

"They have destroyed the water line, the Cyanide was not delivered into the grid."

"What about the bringers?" asked Gabriel.

"Their M777s are being set up, … they are being targeted."

Gabriel kept running, he entered another shop and looked for a sewer access.

-

Robodaria directed all the slayers to pull away from the projected killing zone around the base of the water tower, the gun would do a U turn and start destroying the bringer guns.

Gabriel had disappeared from view, probably running the sewers. This was a serious problem, he was stronger than the slayers, and better trained for warfare of every description, and with the First Evil directing his movements, he would be capable of avoiding any ambush.

That would do for now, but she was also concerned he could set up culvert bombs underneath the slayers positions. There were a large number of buildings that had sewer access and materials that could be used in the manufacture of explosives or equipment that could be converted into flamethrowers, mortars, or rocket launchers (they'd be far from any military specification and would from appearance make any other soldier afraid to touch them, but they'd work).

She asked the slayers working on the obstruction for a report on their progress, she absolutely couldn't wait for them to finish if it would take more than 20 minutes, she would have to start moving people out soon.

The slayers reported 2 hours until completion.

If they didn't finish before they left, the bringers would have no trouble opening the seal.

She had to take Gabriel out.

She plugged a videophone into the fire appliances lighter socket and placed that over the map, she then grabbed an M4M203 (M4 with bolt-on grenade launcher), some grenades (40mmHE, standard army frag and Daria's thermit), some C4 and some detonators.

"Where you going?" asked Jane as she left.

"To kill a cop." said Robodaria.

"Can I help?" asked Jane.

"Negative, I'll be back." said Robodaria.

"Don't say that, characters that say that in the movies all die." said Jane.

Robodaria then used an Austrian accent to say "I'll be back."

Jane nodded and said "Okay, better."

Robodaria then left.

-

"The robot is chasing you." said the First Evil.

"Where is it?" asked Gabriel.

"I can't track it, it has an M16 with grenade launcher, 6 40mmHE grenades, 4 fragmentation grenades, and 4 thermit grenades."

"Well then, I'm just going to have to kill it then." said Gabriel.

-

"Blackbird 3, come to 0 7 5, angels 7 0 buster, over."

"Copy 0 7 5, 7 0 angels buster, out." replied Captain Travis as she brought the aircraft to the course, altitude and speed.

They were coming up on the group of Bringers, they were packing patriots.

Hopefully they hadn't modified them, the First Evil could simply tell the bringers where to steer the missiles, but the missile would need to guide itself at some point.

That was the major flaw in their plan, the First Evil could simply have the bringers shoot the missile vertically, and then it would be coming from an angle that the blackbird won't be radar invisible from, or worse: fit the missile with a 'winder's heat sensor and enough coolant to deal with the long flight, the SR71's skin temperature reached past the 500's, that being the reason the airframe was titanium, not aluminium.

"Blackbird 3, cleared hot, first target co-ordinates, 4 0, 4 5, 2 1 north, 8 1, 2 2, 0 4 west, over."

"Copy weapons hot, targeting 4 0, 4 5, 2 1 north, 8 1, 2 2, 0 4 west, out."

They set the autopilot to auto-release, the target would be illuminated by laser from space.

They saw the dash rise up the vertical line and hit the velocity vector icon, there was a click as the bomb was released.

"Bomb away, bomb away." said Captain Travis.

Then the SAM light flashed.

"Atoll, Atoll." she said as she turned the aircraft south.

"We'll lose our radar invisibility if we show our side to the missile" reminded Captain Handler.

"That'll happen anyway if we overfly the missile, I just want to give it further to fly to get us."

"Okay, but the turn just lost us some altitude."

"I know."

She was sort of tempted to take the aircraft down to an altitude that would give them enough air for the wings to bite, the problem with that was that at lower altitudes, the dynamic pressure on the bombs would put some serious strain on the hard points. And the temperatures reached could possibly ignite the steel cases on the bombs. The cases were sharp, so the shock fronts wouldn't cause any damage to the aircrafts skin, but if the cases came off, the paveway sensors would produce a more severe bow shock, that might burn a hole in the skin before the device was destroyed.

And then there was the power steering units for the fore planes on the front of the bomb, of course this didn't account for the possible drop in velocity by this time, but she was projecting worst case scenarios anyway.

In fact, the whole plan was too Junkheap Wars for her liking anyway.

The missile was following them.

But it was not going to catch them.

Captain Travis then turned north, dropping a little to get some usable air pressure.

"We're losing a lot of altitude." said Captain Handler.

"I know."

She then turned south, toward the missile, it was coming from an angle that wouldn't return much of an echo.

She started dumping chaff.

The missile shot past them, and she pulled out of the dive saying "they can't hit us now, their opportunity has passed"

-

Gabriel was making his way to the hell mouth, his objective was to disrupt their work, prevent them from getting to the stage of lighting that thermite over the gravel. As far as he had heard from the First Evil, the slayers didn't entirely trust the thermit to fill all the cracks, so they were welding bits of rail and rebar to the seal.

He was going to use a bomb he had MacGuyvered to kill them, he would throw it into the room, the girls would eat rat poison contaminated shrapnel, they'd then bleed onto the seal, and open a whole can of Turok Han, and- he sniffed the air.

Something didn't smell right.

This was a sewer, so it was supposed to stink, but this smell had a different tang to it.

"Oh it didn't." he said.

-

The cell phone that Robodaria had placed just south of the hell mouth picked up someone saying "Oh it didn't."

The only person down here aside from herself was Gabriel Kent, everyone else who could conceivably be running around the Cleveland sewer system was holed up at home.

She had been moving around punching as many holes in the gas mains as possible using a chisel and some elbow grease, she had to be careful not to purge all the oxygen from the sewer, and found she had successfully kept the mixture within the explosive limits.

She lifted two fingers and discharged an electrical current between the fingertips.

-

The robot must have heard him.

That was the only reason he could think of why a blue flash had washed over him.

-

Jane's attention was caught by a gynormous flame shooting out of a manhole and water being shot out from the drains along the side of the road, the flames lasted a split second, like a muzzle flash, the blast echoed.

Actually, that wasn't an echo, Jane realised, it was the fact the sound was coming from a number of manhole covers all over the place.

"What the fuck was that?" asked one of the slayers watching the map.

"Sewers just blew up." said Jane.

"Oh." they then returned to what they were just doing.

-

The phones in the area of the detonation were intact, but that didn't guarantee Robodaria would know Gabriel's location, and since the actual knowledge of his capabilities were limited, she had no idea if the explosion or the anaerobic environment had any effect what so ever. He had been knocked out a couple of days ago by an anti armour weapon to the chest, but all she had thrown his way was a change in pressure. It might have thrown him against a wall, singed his alveoli, but there was a high likelihood that it merely slowed his movements a little.

She slowed down and spent most of the time moving her eyes around, she needed to be certain she would see him before he could shoot one of those 40mm grenades at her.

She decided to start broadcasting whirring noises to the phones at random intervals, the phones were concealed from view, so the only way Gabriel would know what was making the noises would be to feel for them, that would affect the signal strength enough for her to know he was there.

-

Gabriel heard that noise again.

He approached the source while looking around.

He absolutely couldn't allow the robot to sneak up on him, and he doubted that the robot would set off a gas explosion if it couldn't survive the conditions created.

The lack of oxygen wasn't helping him much, in fact, it was hindering his thought, as was the splitting headache that was caused by being thrown against the wall of the sewer by the blast.

He felt around the back of the pipe, and found the device was, … a cell phone.

This could be quite useful.

He pulled out a coil of fishing line.

-

Robodaria approached the corner.

The signal loss indicated Gabriel had approached the phone, he had touched the antenna, then he had stayed near it a while, then moved on.

She bobbed her head forward.

She saw the phone in the middle of the sewer.

She was capable of tracking the phone through the systems the police use.

Gabriel intended to draw her into some sort of trap.

Did he know her capabilities?

Robodaria headed to another phone she had set up and chiselled out some concrete, picking up the fragments with a lump of Composition 4, she then set it up near the phone so that if Gabriel came from this direction, he'd get blown up.

She then headed to the phone on the string.

Another possibility occurred to her: Gabriel might not wait for her, he could be moving in on the hell mouth seal.

The gas explosion could not be repeated within the next few hours, the gas leaks were going to add to the gas shield rather than set up another explosion because of the exhaust products filling the sewer network in the area, Gabriel would head to the hell mouth if able to do so.

She retrieved the C4 and chiselled out a deep enough hole for her to bring down the sewer, in case she was wrong, she then headed to the hell mouth and detonated the charge.

-

Gabriel waited a little longer, then he decided to approach the tunnel.

He had set up the string going toe opposite was so that the robot would be looking the wrong way, but about a minute after he heard the blast, he had to consider his bait had failed to raise any interest from the robot.

He walked up the tunnel and found a pile of rocks in his way.

"What did you do that for?"

-

"What the fuck?" asked Quinn when she saw the vampire's face flicker a little.

The vampires were making her fuck them again, and the face of the one she was being made to fuck seemed to be changing into, … "Tiffany?"

She looked over to where the other Tiffany was tied up and getting fucked by one vampire and bitten by another, both vampires faces were changing, they both looked over to her.

The Tiffany that was tied up asked "What's going on here?"

None of the vampire Tiffanies answered.

The ones that were working the tied up Tiffany stood up and stood her up too.

"WELL?" asked tied up Tiffany.

"You wanted someone to understand what happened to you, didn't you?" asked the vampire that Quinn was still straddling.

" … What?" asked Tied up Tiffany, not understanding.

"This was not something that could ever be adequately described with words, in order to understand what you went through, they would have to go through it themselves." said one of the vampire transsexual Tiffanys.

"BUT THAT'S FUCKED! I WOULD NEVER DO THIS!" said tied up Tiffany.

"Yeah? Who do you think I am?" asked the vampire.

"YOU'RE NOT ME!"

"Am too."

"ARE NOT."

"Am too."

"IF YOU'RE ME, YOU'LL FUCKING RELEASE US ALL RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

"No, we're not done, we've only just got started with Quinn."

"NO, YOU ARE DONE! RELEASE HER NOW." said tied up Tiffany.

"hmmmmm." said the vampire, the vampire then sniffed and said "no." before biting into Quinn's neck.

"Well then, you're not me, are you?" asked tied up Tiffany.

"It's just as likely you're not you." said the vampire feeding off Quinn.

Tied up Tiffany stared at the vampire and eventually said "THAT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHAT SO EVER!"

One of the vampires near tied up Tiffany then pulled a knife and cut the ropes restraining her.

The vamp next to the one that had just done that looked at him/her incredulously as the Tiffany that had just been freed said "thanks." before grabbing the second vampire and throwing him/her across the room, she then ran to where a pencil was lying and picked it up before the third vamp could grab her neck chain, she then used the pencil to kill the third vampire.

The one fucking Quinn threw Quinn to the floor and got in the fight, but found him/herself frozen to the spot.

Tiffany staked each vampire in turn, but the one that had been fucking Quinn wouldn't dust.

Tiffany kept stabbing with the pencil, She then shook it next to her ear and said "hmmm."

Vampire male Tiffany said "you know I'm right, don't you?"

-

Robodaria detected a disturbance, she set off the charges and pursued it.

The disturbance was somewhere along the grid of lasers she had set up, but she ran into a Turok Han at the first corner.

The Turok Han was armed with a grenade, which it released the spoon from. It then tried to hug Robodaria, but she punched it back the way it had come, it failed to release the grenade until it was too far from Robodaria for the grenade to cause any damage beyond a couple of scratches from shrapnel.

She knew Gabriel was well inside the perimeter she had set up, she ran after him.

"GABRIEL'S TOPSIDE!" she heard one of the slayers broadcast.

She ran for the nearest manhole and shot up the ladder, dragging herself out with her hands, her toes skidding up the wall on either side of the ladder to avoid them getting caught. She surfaced and ran to the only target worth Gabriel's time.

She approached the sports centre the hell mouth was located under and saw him run around the other side.

She made it around in time to see him enter through a fire exit he had ripped off it's hinges, two dead slayers next to it.

She saw him round a corner ahead of her, she ordered the slayers working on the hell mouth to be ready for him.

She heard gunfire ahead, and someone report "Ruth's down.". She then heard more gunfire, and found Gabriel on the other side of the door. Some gunshot wounds in his arms and torso, he saw her in time to get a grenade off, but his aim sucked. Robodaria got hers off just after her view was obstructed by smoke and dust. The origin of her grenade detonation was too distant for it to have hit Gabriel, she unloaded the clip on her M16 in an attempt to either hit him if he was in the corridor, or keep him out of the corridor.

She then threw a thermit grenade in order to cut off a potential escape.

She advanced through the smoke.

No joy.

She looked for blood.

The trail led to a door a little further along.

She shouted "friendly coming through." before passing the doors that led to the chamber where the slayers were working on securing the hell mouth.

She had another grenade loaded by the time she was at the door, Gabriel had moved on.

She kept following the blood, she rounded another corner in time to see a pipe explode.

She ran through the water and tried to reacquire the blood trail.

Wasn't happening, so she went to the hell mouth since that would still be his logical objective.

Right now, slayers were taking positions around the building, she deployed them to locations where they could be certain he could be killed with relatively little risk to themselves.

The problem was that he was disrupting work, also they were getting close to dusk, there were likely to be a lot more Turok Han where that one came from, and while she doubted the slayers would experience any serious problems against them, they would occupy their attention.

She arrived back at the room and told the slayers to get back to work, she could cover all entrances effectively, they needed to get the obstructions completed soon.

-

"You didn't like the fact that everyone else was walking around without a god damned clue what you were feeling." said the vampire.

"I didn't want everyone looking at me with god damned pity." said Tiffany.

"You still hated the fact they were ignorant."

"Is that what the First Evil used?"

"It had a point."

"Yeah, well so did I when I decided not to tell anyone, they DIDN'T, NEED, TO KNOW! ESPECIALLY IN THIS MANNER, MY JOB IS TO PROTECT PEOPLE FROM VAMPIRES, NOT LOCK THEM IN A ROOM FULL OF THEM!"

"It was kind of lonely though, but now Quinn knows-"

"AND NOW, SHE WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!"

"Damn, that- oh wait, she didn't want anything to do with you earlier, when you interrogated Daria, remember?"

"IRRELEVANT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS SHIT?"

"It's you that's-"

"YOU'RE NOT ME! YOU MAY LIVE IN MY HEAD, BUT YOU ARE NOT ME! WHAT ARE YOUR OBJECTIVES?"

"To spread the pain, misery loves company, in't that right Daria?"

Daria appeared in the room and looked around.

"Daria?" asked Quinn.

"Hi Quinn." said Daria.

Another Tiffany appeared, this one in the blue dress she had favoured all that time ago.

Daria noticed her as she approached, and headed over to the naked Tiffany.

"Come on, … what should I call you?" asked naked Tiffany.

"Tiffany's good." said vampire Tiffany.

"Not for you, and feel free to take that as a threat, by the way." naked Tiffany then skipped over to blue dress Tiffany and kicked her across the room.

"Hey, quit hitting yourself" said vampire Tiffany.

"That's not me, it's you, you're a totally different persona based on a single warped urge the First Evil managed to exploit." said Naked Tiffany.

"Yeah? What you gonna do about it? I have control, you don't control shit." said vampire Tiffany.

"Neither do you." said naked Tiffany.

Blue dress Tiffany then charged naked Tiffany, but naked Tiffany simply leaned on blue dress Tiffany's head as blue dress Tiffany started swinging her fists around.

"In fact, I think you are really starting to lose it big time."

Blue dress Tiffany disappeared, vampire Tiffany stepped forwards saying "alrighty then." she threw a punch, which naked Tiffany blocked. Naked Tiffany also threw a punch, but vampire Tiffany blocked that.

They separated, then vampire Tiffany charged naked Tiffany, who grabbed vampire Tiffany and fell back, flipping vampire Tiffany over her, they both got up simultaneously.

Vampire Tiffany spun around and launched a reverse kick, which naked Tiffany blocked, but vampire Tiffany had used the kick as a diversion so she could get closer so she could kick naked Tiffany in the chest, but Naked Tiffany simply grabbed vampire Tiffany's leg and shoved her onto the deck, twisting the shin around so that the knee was dislocated.

Vampire Tiffany kicked at naked Tiffany with her other leg, naked Tiffany was forced to disengage temporarily, vampire Tiffany got up, trying to move around on the fucked up knee.

Naked Tiffany then started kicking at vampire Tiffany, vampire Tiffany blocked the kicks, naked Tiffany then threw some punches, vampire tiffany's blocks were effective for the punches, but it allowed naked Tiffany to grab her hands and draw her towards her, she kneed her in the chest, then brought both hands down on both sides of her neck simultaneously, she then jumped up, spreading her feet as far as possible, and leaning forwards to bring her elbow down into vampire Tiffany's back, right between the shoulder blades.

She then grabbed vampire Tiffany's head and twisted it 270° around.

She then picked up vampire Tiffany and asked "are you dead yet?"

Vampire Tiffany then grabbed naked Tiffany by the throat, Naked Tiffany broke the hold and twisted vampire Tiffany's left arm around, dislocating the elbow, she then repeated the procedure on the other arm.

Naked Tiffany then stood up and asked "anyone know how we get out of here?"

Vampire Tiffany laughed, saying "you can't."

Naked Tiffany picked up vampire Tiffany and said "care to re-phrase that?"

"I'm still a part of you, and no one leaves without my say so."

-

The slayers with the giant torches that had been pre-heating the structure backed off as the one with the magnesium strip approached the huge pile of thermite. She then threw it onto the thermite, and the whole pile lit up, flooding the room with radiated heat.

"Okay, time to go." said Robodaria.

They all headed out, leaving the bottles of propane in the room, those would absorb some of the heat from the thermite. Or the flamethrower on the converted appliance later if they haven't gone off by then.

They picked the shortest route to the nearest open area controlled by their forces, it was starting to get dark outside.

"Right, soon as this place is on fire, we're moving on." said Robodaria.

She had called in the modified fire appliance earlier, they were going to use it to try to incinerate Gabriel Kent.

Robodaria doubted it would work though.

She ordered Jane to get to work, and she did.

There were puffs of fire from within, the propane cans had exploded as expected.

After they had filled every accessible room with fire, they moved out.

The roof mortars were dismantled and on hummers in 5 minutes, Robodaria directed all the slayers west, sending the guns with them.

She hoped that the whole thing would come off as well as the last engagement.

-

Quinn checked her makeup again. With no one holding her down, she had gotten dressed again, and Daria completed her 35th lap around the room. Naked Tiffany hadn't moved a millimetre, and was still holding vampire Tiffany.

"Are we bored yet?" asked Daria.

Naked Tiffany then looked up and said "something's happening."

Vampire Tiffany said "yeah, I'm getting that too."

They looked down at naked Tiffany's hands and saw them fusing with Vampire Tiffany's body.

"Ewwwwwww." said Quinn.

"And so say all of us." said the Tiffanys simultaneously.

"does this mean-" started Daria.

-

"-We're getting out of here?"

Sandi and the Blum-Deckler parents looked at Daria, then at the other three people who had been in a coma for the past day or so.

Daria and Quinn looked around, Tiffany and Amanda opened their eyes.

"It's hard to breathe in here." said Quinn.

"Carbon dioxide poisoning." said Daria.

"What?" asked Quinn.

"The reason we were released was because of the build up of carbon dioxide." said Daria.

"Yeah, about that, do you know any oxygen spells?" asked Sandi.

"Yeah, but if Tiffany loses her intoxication, she might go catatonic again." said Daria.

"Or worse:" said Tiffany, she then explained "my inner Samara could take over and start tearing everyone's limbs off."

"Right, that case, we should have some morphine somewhere." she went for a first aid kit they had, she opened it and pulled some ampoules and a syringe, she broke open a couple and filled the syringe from them.

"Isn't that a bit much?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.

"Not for a vampire slayer, multiply all tolerances by 3." said Daria as she prepared to inject Tiffany.

After Daria had administered the dose, she then pulled a pen and wrote an M on Tiffany's forehead.

"What did you do that for?" asked Quinn.

"'Case another medical team takes charge of Tiffany within the time it takes for the morphine to leave her system, standard practice since we don't have the sort of forms that would normally accompany a patient in the hospital." she then pulled a small piece of paper from her coat pocket and cast a spell.

A bright light appeared in front of her face, it fell into her lap.

She picked it up.

"Air's fresher." said Quinn.

Daria held up the rough diamond and said "usually is without all this in it."

"Whoa." said Quinn.

"That's a real diamond?" asked Sandi.

"Yep, now, let's get the fuck out of here, Amanda, feel up to taking a peek outside?" asked Daria.

-

The bringers in the Cleveland area were all dead now, that left the Turok Han.

The slayers had been using 40mm grenades to maim them on their way in, and then switching to swords when they were close enough to do so, Jane was on a hummer with her own flamethrower cooking as many Turok Han as possible, the slayers operating the converted fire fighting appliance were working the other side of the enemy formation.

The air force had apparently taken out half the high altitude SAMs the bringers had stolen, using a modified SR71 with modified mk84GBUs, it looked like the First Evil was losing, but she imagined that the First Evil would not just let them win, and they hadn't seen Gabriel die, so Robodaria had to assume Gabriel was still in the game.

-

"I hate losing." said the First Evil.

"Wow, what a coincidence, I also happen to hate losing." said Gabriel, as he walked along the warehouse full of chemicals.

"What exactly are you doing here?" asked the First Evil.

"Seal of Danthazar's just a door right?" asked Gabriel.

"Yes." said the first.

"So if I can get enough explosives on top of it, it'll be permanently open, right?" asked Gabriel.

"Yes, but how are you going to get past the cordon of slayers there?"

"You know, the irony of this whole debacle is that if I had simply used the cyanide on the sports centre, that seal would be open and spewing Turok Han by now?" he came across some sacks of sodium chlorate. He then said "this stuff has fire retardants in it, but if I can assemble enough HEs for a booster charge, or otherwise cook it off, I can get it to detonate" he signalled some Turok Han that had been following with giant palette trolleys to start grabbing the sacks "Now, poisons, … " he headed off to find some nerve gas ingredients.

-

Robodaria received reports that all enemy agents were dead, she decided to dispatch a few teams to retrieve the bodies of the dead slayers, she didn't know where to send the bodies though, she searched for available lockers in the cities morgues.

They had managed to capture 3 more M777s intact, so she could now cover the full field of fire.

Another 30 slayers had been killed in action, this on top of the losses in the previous battle had eaten a large portion of the forces under her command.

As a robot, it was difficult to say anything meaningful about the deaths, they were simply destroyed combat units. Robodaria could never relate to the living people she commanded, she was aware of this, but also aware of the effect on morale the deaths will have had, and that being commanded by a machine would have eaten some of the patience the slayers would have had under this kind of distress.

There wasn't time to bury the dead, it would be faster to stick them in the available morgues, then they could carry out whatever funeral rites were appropriate once the current crisis was solved, at the moment there was still a large bringer force a couple of hundred miles south of Cleveland. The air force was now moving in with more normal aircraft, all the serious SAM units were destroyed.

Robodaria remembered when she had stolen that F16 loaded with AGM65s and mk82s, that had gone rather well, but she had been on equal terms with the First Evil, it had to instruct the bringers to use the sensors to locate her because as a machine, she was untraceable without being around any life forms, the air force would not have that advantage, they would have to destroy the enemy from outside the ranges of the stingers the enemy probably had, they were making progress, but they only had 37 aircraft available for this, and they had limited stores, they were also running out of AGMs and paveways, the A10s didn't have as mush a problem with the stingers, so they could go in and strafe enemy units.

The army was moving in with whatever armour they had, which wasn't a lot since most of it was in Iraq, but it severely outclassed what the bringers were now left with, they were starting to win.

The First Evil will not be happy about that.

And Gabriel was not confirmed as being dead.

Robodaria received a phone call from Daria.

"Robodaria, Daria, how's it going?"

"We have Cleveland, the Cleveland hell mouth is obstructed, no enemy activity within city limits, we encountered the first evil's chief acolyte, Gabriel Kent, we might have killed him, but that has not been confirmed, the army are making progress further south, I lost a total of 56 slayers since you were trapped in Tiffany's mind, what's your situation?"

"We just freed ourselves from Tiffany's mind, Tiffany has now been sedated until we can get her some help, otherwise, we're coming to you."

"Received, out."

-

"This is unbelievable, the second time the first evil tries to take over the world, and again, we remain ignorant of it." said Wesley.

They had been driving to Cleveland for the past day or so, having stockpiled enough ordnance to feel up to a massive battle, they were expecting to be going up against more Wolfram and Hart forces, but this didn't seem to be the plan.

"Yeah, but at least the first time we had an excuse, the whole Jasmine thing." said Gunn.

"Ucghh, don't remind me." said Wesley.

"Jasmine?" asked Illyria.

"Yeah, hypnotic people eater from another dimension, tried hypnotising the planet, ultimately defeated by Angel finding out her true name and speaking it in this dimension." said Wesley.

"That sounds familiar, … … I know the First Evil, it was a source of great amusement in my time, but now that it has become a competitive force, I need it disabled." said Illyria, looking kind of mournful at this.

"Yeah, that's a crying shame, that." said Spike, not needing the stereotypical tone for the sarcasm to be obvious.

"Tell me of your experiences with the First Evil." said Illyria.

"Right, well, let's see: first time I met it, it dry-cleaned my brain, could see my face in it, if I wasn't a vampire, that is. Then when we identified it, it decided to get it's pet Turok Han to smack me around a little, then there was the time I got incinerated in the process of the destruction of the Sunnydale Hell mouth, and, … that's it."

"I see."

"I wasn't aware that there were so many hellmouths though." said Spike.

"Why is this nation's army having so much trouble?" asked Illyria.

"Our president is an idiot." said Wesley.

"Our president, your country has a prime minister." said Gunn.

"Blair? Fuckin' control freak." said Spike.

"It makes sense to acquire control over everything, that's how you win." said Illyria.

"It makes more sense to listen to those around you and think about what you're doing." said Wesley.

"Both procedures make equal sense, that is why I intent to earn the loyalty of the humans, so I can make use of it's expertise."

"Huh, good luck, humans are as fractious as the pure demons of your time." said Spike.

"They might be easier to unite when faced with the mystical threats they face." said Illyria.

"Looks like we're about to find out, no way to hide the current war against the First Evil." said Gunn.

"We may have some action left after all." said Illyria.

"Really? How's that?" asked Spike.

"I am sensing the First Evil's Qwa'ha Xahn, it has a unique emotional flavour." said Illyria.

"Can you get a vector?" asked Wesley.

Illyria concentrated, and said "No, it's getting too strong, my senses are not what they used to be, but it looks like we should speed up."

-

The APC stopped and Daria got out, walking over to Jane and Robodaria, saying "'sup?"

"Not a lot, slayers are relaxing, the police are re-taking control of the city, bringers are getting killed on mass in Canada, all's going pretty well, so we've created a few more problems, 'in't that right?" said Jane, directing the last three words at Robodaria.

"The problem is I can not be certain Gabriel Kent is dead." said Robodaria.

Daria took a couple of seconds, then said "Jane, I've seen the intelligence we have on these guys, Buffy had dealt what should have been a fatal injury to Caleb, he jumped right back up and resumed fighting."

"And Gabriel Kent took an anti-armour rocket to the chest, and jumped right back up and resumed fighting." added Robodaria.

"What did it was splitting the guy right down the middle, I'd go for pureeing the guy myself though, just to be safe." said Daria.

"Okay." said Jane.

"I have 20 of slayers on quick reaction alert at all times, this will continue until I am certain the threat is neutralised or someone else has picked up the problem." said Robodaria.

"Right, … … If you got a few spare kilobytes per second, could you start checking on the slayers relatives? And see if you can find out if Jake Morgendorffer's still alive?" asked Daria.

Robodaria said "Standby." and stared off into space, looking bored as she started looking online for the information.

After a while, Robodaria said "The Lawndale Police Department has logged 342 calls from a Jake Morgendorffer asking about Yourself and Quinn since the bringers kicked off, there is a good chance he is still alive."

"Sweet." said Daria.

"How's Tiffany?" asked Jane.

"Sedated, I think she's a danger to everyone right now, the First Evil really did a number on her."

"What happened?"

"I had Amanda place Quinn and me in Tiffany's head, and Tiffany's other self went off like a mine. It trapped all three of us until we started running out of oxygen, then Tiffany's personalities united, and we all regained consciousness."

"That's what Willow told us." said Jane.

"Yeah? Did she mention that Tiffany's other self took on the personas of the vampires that captured her and held her prisoner for several weeks?"

"No."

"When we were trying to get Tiffany to wake up, we had Quinn trigger a flashback because Tiffany was imagining she was in school, but that caused the activation of her other selves, and Quinn was with her when those vampires entered the room, and I couldn't do anything other than watch them play with her." said Daria.

Jane couldn't come up with a response.

"That's my fucking sister. I allowed her into Tiffany's mind without looking for, … I don't know, something that could have indicated that this could happen."

The two of them were silent for now.

Robodaria then said "Oh crap."

"What?" asked Daria.

"Cops investigated a warehouse break in, they got video footage of a balding man accompanied by several monstrous creatures. They're missing quantities of sodium chlorate, and a number of ingredients that can be used to create VX, I've dispatched the alert slayers."

"Sodium chlorate? That sound familiar." said Jane.

"I use Ammonium perchlorate as an oxidiser, most chlorates I've heard of can also be used as high explosives."

"Pictures have been sent to the command centre, … it's Gabriel Kent. He must be headed to the square where slayers are assembled. I'll intercept him, you two start moving them out of there." said Robodaria.

"Right." said Daria.

She and Jane headed off.

-

"The robot just told the slayers guarding the hell mouth to assist in the operation." said the First Evil as Gabriel and his gaggle of Turok Han helped him manufacture the nerve agent.

"I see." said Gabriel.

"If the area is clear, we should move straight on to blasting the hell mouth."

"Right." said Gabriel, he then gestured for the Turok Han to follow him, as he lifted his wheelbarrow of weed killer and headed off.

-

Sandi watched the road moving past as the APC drove down the road along with the convoy of hummers as they all relocated to another part of town.

She then turned to Quinn, who was looking extremely depressed.

"Worried about Tiffany?" asked Sandi.

"Sort of." said Quinn.

"What happened in there exactly?" asked Sandi.

Quinn thought about her answer, but said "I don't want to talk about it."

Sandi looked at Quinn, the tone of her voice seemed very wrong for Quinn.

She looked over to Daria as she drove, then Amanda, who was sitting with Jane, neither of them were talking.

Tiffany had been transferred to an air ambulance, and would be admitted to a psychiatric ward close to Lawndale until someone could take over. Her parents had gone with her, Daria wasn't sure if she should tell her parents anything, she had instead given her number to the medics and told them to have the doctor call her.

She had also called Buffy, who it turned out was on route into the area with a couple of SAS members, who had been helping with the European theatre.

Buffy was going to arrange for one of the Watcher's Council's Psychiatrists to take over, since they were in on the mystical side of things while she was in the air. They'd arrive in Cleveland within 20 minutes.

Sandi decided to talk to Daria, since she wasn't getting sweet fuck all from Quinn.

"Sandi?" Daria asked, obviously sensing her presence behind her without looking.

"What happened in there?" Sandi simply asked.

"I told you, I don't want to breech any confidences, if Quinn doesn't want you to know-"

"Daria, my friend looks traumatized, I need to know what happened, … if something had happened to Jane, you'd need to know what had happened."

Daria thought about it.

At least Sandi hoped she was thinking about it. There was only one time Sandi could remember when Daria's emotions were written on her face, and, … she shuddered as she thought of what had happened.

"Quinn?" asked Daria.

"What?"

"I really think you ought to tell Sandi what happened in there."

Quinn shuddered and looked down at her feet, her knuckles turning white as she seemingly tried to crush both her hands simultaneously.

Sandi sat down next to her.

Quinn eventually said "When Tiffany started reliving her experience with those vampires, I got stuck with her."

Sandi tried to think of something to say, but came up blank.

"It was horrible." said Quinn.

Sandi was about to ask for details, but had trouble thinking of a way to ask for them without upsetting Quinn.

Sandi hadn't really cared about Quinn's emotional state prior to now, she had mostly been looking for a way to destroy Quinn's popularity, but now Quinn looked broken, and all Sandi could think about was how she could repair her.

Except Linda had always told her that compassion is a sign of weakness.

"What are you doing Sandi?"

Sandi looked over to the apparition of her mother.

"That's your enemy, surely you're not thinking of helping her?"

"Get fucked." said Sandi.

Quinn looked at her, and then looked at where Sandi was looking.

"What?" asked both Quinn and the First Evil.

"That goes for both of you"

Quinn looked hurt.

Sandi realised what Quinn was thinking and said "not you, I mean the First Evil and my Mom."

"Oh." said Quinn.

Then Quinn, Amanda and Jane looked at the spot where the First Evil stood.

Disguised as Jane.

"Hey Daria, remember the fun we had betting on the functionality of the Fashion Club?"

Daria glanced back, and then said "Jane, real Jane, I mean, not First Evil apparition of Jane, … anyway, bet you twenty it's going to bring up the manipulation during the bet."

"Nah, it's going to bring up my manipulation." said Jane.

Quinn looked shocked.

The First Evil smirked and said "I thought the two of you were supposed to be brains."

"Come on, you're the First Evil, and that's the best you can come up with?"

"Well, it's kind of difficult to top you in the evil department, remember that story you wrote for that class assignment where Quinn runs out into an 8 lane highway because she couldn't be like you?"

"Remember all the fights me and Quinn engaged in starting from when we were 3 to that time Illyria and Tiffany had a go at me? It's a long conflict that's been steadily winding down for years now. Quinn denied she was my sister for most of high school, Quinn took credit for all of Jane's hard work at that dance, Quinn drove me 'round the bend with that mime act, Quinn drove Jane nuts when she got kicked out of every one of her friends houses."

"Remember when you took Tom Sloan from Jane?"

"Remember when I said I was over it? Y'know, when I actually meant it?" said Jane.

The First Evil then became all demony and disappeared.

"I thought that thing was supposed to be good at head fucks." said Sandi.

"Only when people aren't aware that the First Evil is in there." said Daria.

Of course Daria knew that Principle Wood had been aware of exactly who had told him about Spike, but that was only because his desire for revenge overwhelmed his caution regarding the first evil.

--

"DAMN IT, I DIDN'T MAKE A FUCKING DENT!"

Gabriel glanced at the apparition and then resumed his work, calmly asking "what did the good guys do this time?"

"DARIA FUCKING MORGENDORFFER, FUCKING RUINED A PERFECTLY GOOD MIND FUCK, OOOHHHH, IF I HAD TANGABLE HANDS, ... "

"That's what you got me for, all they did will be avenged in time" he said as he placed the item in the cavity, placing the elbow on the drainpipe near a corner. He then placed another bag of fuel soaked weed killer on top of it.

"That's the booster?" asked the First Evil.

"Not quite. I really don't want to be waiting too long here, so I instead pulverised a load of the stuff and mixed it with kerosene and coal, put some sand around it to slow the heat down. That should bring a big chunk of this stuff to 250°C simultaneously, the process would be slower than a HE booster, but it would take longer to make all the explosives I would need if I were to try the normal methods." said Gabriel as the Turok Han started placing more bags on top of the one he had already put down.

"When will this be ready?" asked the First Evil.

"I'd say five more minutes, then I can light it." said Gabriel.

He heard two impacts, he glanced over and saw two "GRENADES!" he dove behind the pile of bags, but saw the robot at the door on the side he had gone to, so he was on his feet again, the 40mm grenade struck his hip, he was thrown sideways, close enough to one of the other grenades to eat a full third of it's shrapnel.

He got to his feet and headed into the corridor. He knew the robot would have two options: attempt to diffuse the bomb, or attempt to kill Gabriel. The First Evil was hopefully sending Turok Han to help distract the robot or finish the bomb and light it.

He reached the robot's previous position and glanced in, seeing the robot with a katana and several piles of dust, one of them in the making.

He just ran at the robot, and caught the sword in his hand as she made a slice at him.

He then punched the robot in the ribs, the robot let go of the sword and punched him in the face, sending him backwards. He still held the sword, he went for the robot, attempting to slice it, but the robot grabbed the sword and pulled Gabriel in, nutting him in the side of the head. She then kicked him in the chest, he had let go of the sword. She spun around, but he intercepted her swing by grabbing her forearms. He then swung her around, three times before he let go, sending her across the room.

He realised that might have been a bad idea when she got up, loading another grenade into the launcher, and he just about got behind something before the robot could fire.

He then threw a knife at the robot's gun, getting it down the barrel of the grenade launcher.

The robot didn't fire as he ran at her. She instead shook the weapon, the knife left the barrel, and she got it pointed at him when he was a metre away. He deflected the weapon, shoulder butting the robot in the waist, he then felt a knife enter the back of his head.

He recovered in time to feel a third bag of weed killer land on him.

He raised his head enough to see where the robot was, the robot brought the M16 up to fire, but only got the grenade off after he had shoved one of the bags into the air between him and the grenade launcher.

It detonated in mid air.

He got up.

The room was full of smoke, he saw movement behind the smoke, the robot was running at him.

He picked up a handy piece of rubble from where the floor had been removed over the hell mouth, and threw it at the robot, but she batted it off to the side with the back of her fist and continued on in.

He used a palm strike on the top of the robot's head, but that did fuck all, the robot continued on in, punching him in the sternum with a middle finger second knuckle sticking out, this lifted him off his feet, she then kneed him in the 'nads, this fractured his pelvis a little.

He bounced off the wall and jumped off to the side when the robot tried to punch him in the throat, burying her hand in the wall.

The robot went vertical, running up the wall and towards him, her endoskeleton now visible where her skin had been removed by the concrete.

He used a palm strike to her chest to send her across the room, he then ran off looking for a weapon.

--

"Are you sure about this?" asked Buffy.

"Are you unsure about this?" asked Rebecca.

"What, stepping out of a plane with a really big table cloth tied to me? Nah, do it all the time." said Buffy, imitating Spike a little.

"Yeah, well, the rest of us are doing it, you want to join the party before it closes, you'll have to too." said Rebecca.

Buffy knew Rebecca was right.

The aircraft they were on, a Concorde that the RAF had secreted away, couldn't land in the middle of a city, it could land at more airports since the engines had been replaced with turbofans (they were a little bit bigger than the turbojets, and had wayyyyyyy more thrust apparently), and had been fitted with bomb bay doors, through which they would jump.

They had a slide that would extend from the airframe ahead of the doors so that the airflow doesn't smack them against the back of the opening, and they'd be jumping from just under 12,000 feet, only opening their velocity chutes when they were halfway above the altitude where they'd be outside the glide radius of the site.

"Right, everyone, listen up. We just got word, Gabriel's on the Cleveland hell mouth, the robot's giving out continuous telemetry on it's own and Gabriel's location, the tactical situation will probably be changing rapidly and continuously, so everyone, watch your fucking eyeHUDs." said Henno over the intercom.

Everyone else seemed to be all relaxed, Buffy was about the only person walking around looking like a freshman soldier or whatever their proper name is.

Dawn was up in the cockpit with the flight crew and, Aiden and Henno, she was going to be a spare com for the European crew.

The famed SAS, not looking very military, more like, … gangsters or something. The way they kept calling Aiden 'Boss' instead of 'Colonel', their general attitudes were different from the soldiers she had encountered at the initiative.

Not that the initiative crew had been all stoic, all the time. Perhaps the only army that could conceivably be like that was North Korea's armed forces, or some cult, but these people seemed more like the slayers for some reason.

--

Robodaria found herself in the sewers again.

The gas mains she had used had been shut off at the source when the cops started taking back over, so she couldn't use that at all, as if it was of use earlier.

The batteries on the cell phones she had left lying around were dead now, so she couldn't monitor Gabriel's movements beyond sound (which had gotten confusing due to the acoustics of the sewers) chemical analysis of the air, his sweat, the volatile materials his clothes had picked up from preparing the bomb.

If she loses track of him, she would have to return to the hell mouth because that was his logical target, she had sabotaged the device to buy time in that instance, but there wasn't a lot of time.

The traces were too thin now, she had lost him.

--

"Fucking robot." Gabriel muttered, as a pull at the wires revealed they were no longer connected to the device inside.

"Now what?" asked the First Evil.

Gabriel looked around. He then ran over to a pile of conduits, he picked up two and jammed them through the pile so they penetrated the heating charge.

He then picked up the car battery he was going to use to spark the device and the jumper leads. He connected them up to the rods, and started moving them around.

When he felt they had come into contact, he waited.

The thin contact area should get hot enough to ignite the mixture.

He started hearing a hissing noise coming out of the pipe, and eventually he saw smoke.

Then he felt something strike him in the back, and he was thrown forward.

He got up to see the robot loading another grenade, she shot him before he could figure out what to do.

He ran at her as she loaded a third, she shot him from about a metre away, he was thrown to the ceiling.

The grenades were beating the crap out of him, but he got up again, there wasn't much the robot could do to the bomb with him there threatening to kill him.

The robot was pulling sacks off in twos, trying to get to the heat source.

He kicked at the robot, she rolled off to the side, grabbing one of the sacks and smacking him with it.

He was thrown off to the side, and the robot kept removing the bags.

He ran.

--

Robodaria had to prevent the hell mouth from being blown open.

Gabriel had not found anything to use as a booster charge, he was obviously using impulse explosives to cook off the charge.

Gabriel had now run off, she couldn't pursue right now, she had to leave that to the incoming SAS, and the slayers that were now returning to the scene now that the deception was over. But the slayers were not as thoroughly drilled in firearms as the SAS or Gabriel, who is former SBS, are, they would have to avoid getting too close to him.

That unfortunately meant leaving most of the sewer network for his personal use.

The slayers were going to set up in locations that should contain Gabriel, positions that allowed them to kill him before he was anywhere near close enough to shoot them with any vague sense of accuracy.

That meant that Gabriel was going to find something within the perimeter to use against them, he seemed to be good at that.

The charge detonated.

--

"Shit." said Henno.

"My screen's frozen." said Buffy.

"That's because the robot just got blown up. She got the job most way done though, Gabriel is contained, now it's on us to slot him." said Henno.

"All Romeos, I have control, we're approaching the drop point now. Everyone clear the door, and assemble at the front of it." said Aiden.

Everyone picked up the few items that weren't attached to them and did as instructed.

"Door's clear." said Henno.

The trap door opened as did the bomb bay doors, dropping then sliding under the floor and swinging down respectively, the slide extended from its location and then dropped down.

"Buffy Summers, back of the line, that way you won't hold us up if you bottle out." said Henno.

Buffy obeyed.

"All Romeos standby, … standby, … standby, … go-go-go!"

Everyone had started running onto the slide on the first 'go', they were missing the back of the doorframe by about 40cm. That was the part that made Buffy uneasy, even a slayer could be put in a wheelchair for some time if they bounced off that doorframe like that.

Once they were all off, Buffy took a couple of seconds to decide if she could do this.

"Closing doors now." said Aiden.

Buffy then dove through the door.

She eventually learned how to orient herself towards the target location, she had no choice but to use the eyeHUD, the others were out of her sight.

HALO jump.

Kind of like on that Bond film, but over land.

Over the next 40 seconds, she fell, seeing parachutes open under her near the deck.

She couldn't be that far behind, surely?

They circled around the sports centre.

They would enter the sports centre to determine the status of the hell mouth seal first.

"Buffy, you in theatre yet?" asked someone.

"Yes." said Buffy.

"We have Angel's crew here, they want to help us with Gabriel."

Buffy thought about it.

"They say they're no longer with Wolfram and Hart."

"Alright, fine, let them in, Henno?"

"What?"

"We have friendly forces coming in, names are Angel, Wesley Pryce, Winifred Burkle, Charles Gunn, Spike, and Illyria."

"Angel's dead, apparently." said the slayer.

Buffy was stunned by this revelation, and almost failed to notice the terrain coming at her.

She yanked at the rip chord and almost broke her own neck failing to adequately prepare for the new force, and by the fact she rolled slightly due to the way she pulled the chord without countering the effect her arm movement had on her frontal cross section.

"AAAOOOWWW!"

"Buffy?" asked the slayer.

"Ahh, fine, just pulled my neck or something." she said, she remembered to grab the controls for the parachute and found a road to land on.

"Acknowledged, anyway, Henno, got all that?"

"Received, out."

Buffy landed and ditched the parachute, she removed her weapon from her shoulder (a big ass automatic shotgun with explosive rounds) and headed off to where the SAS were.

"Hell mouth secure, starting search." said Henno.

"Received." said Buffy.

She had correctly guessed the movements of Caleb.

But Caleb wasn't a soldier.

But the First Evil had, like, an eternity of experience watching battles occur.

"Oooo-kayyyyyy, I'm a psychotic gimp owned by the First Evil, where do I go?"

--

"I can't believe I did that." said Quinn.

"Huh?" asked Sandi.

They were sat in the canteen of one of the police stations in Cleveland, Daria didn't think she could add any more to the fight at the moment, she, Jane, Sandi, Amanda and Quinn were taking the rest of the war off.

"I tried to help again, and only got in the way again." said Quinn.

"Oh, that. Well, it happens." said Sandi.

"Yeah, but what happened this time, … If you saw it, you'd be sick of the sight of me too."

Sandi blinked a couple more times.

"Errm, … huh?"

"Those vampires, they grabbed me, stripped me, and, … … they raped me."

"Oh, … … why would Daria be sick of the sight of you?" asked Sandi.

"Because she saw the whole thing, she saw me, … I don't know how to describe it, except it was fucking horrible and gross and, … … She hates me." said Quinn.

"Has she said she hates you?" asked Sandi.

"No, … but she's been avoiding me."

--

Daria punched at the bag as she had for the past 10 minutes.

"Daria, you wanna stop now?" asked Jane.

"Why?" asked Daria.

"Because knuckles aren't supposed to be that shade of purple." said Jane.

Daria stopped and looked at her fists, her knuckles were indeed a gross shade of purple.

"Right."

Daria started kicking the bag now.

"Err, … I'm no expert, but are you sure Quinn's alright?" asked Jane.

"Sure, right as rain, a little torture never hurt anyone." said Daria.

"Okay, my point is, don't you think it would be a bad idea to leave her alone?"

"Sandi's with her, and in spite of what I've seen of the way they interact in the fashion club, I don't think Sandi's cold enough to exploit Quinn's emotional state to cause her further harm." said Daria as she continued to kick the bag.

"Sandi doesn't understand any of what Quinn went through." said Jane.

"Sandi didn't sit there and watch her get gang raped by figments of Tiffany's imagination." said Daria.

"Oh for crying out loud." said Jane, she then walked up to Daria and grabbed her by the ear, and led her out of the training room, Daria asking what she thought she was doing and telling her to let go.

Oddly enough, they made it through the whole precinct without any cops stopping them to the cafeteria.

Jane let go of Daria's ear after manoeuvring her in front of her and pointed at Quinn and Sandi, who, like everyone else in the cafeteria, was looking at them, saying "Talk to her, now!"

"Jane-" started Daria.

Jane vamped out as she folded her arms.

"-, … fine." said Daria as she headed over to her sibling and her sibling's friend.

Jane unvamped and headed over to the counter to get some pureed brussel sprouts to mix with her blood.

"So, … How've you been?" asked Quinn.

"Erphhh, … alright, I guess, … Jane reckons I need to talk to you about what happened in Tiffany's head."

Quinn nodded.

They then sat there in silence.

"We know what happened." said Quinn.

"I think Jane was talking in terms of feelings or something." said Daria.

More silence.

"I felt hatred for the vampires." said Quinn.

"Ditto." said Daria.

--

Illyria lead the formation which consisted of Gunn and Wesley located 3 metres behind her and 6 metres apart. Winifred on the truck with a minigun and the other nuclear rocket launcher, and Spike driving the truck because of the sun.

Everyone was wearing light activated shades because they didn't know when either Illyria or Winifred would need to shoot something.

The Special Air Service troop were doing a grid search in the sewers and mining them as they moved, the mines would hopefully hamper Gabriel Kent's movements, and the air force had UAVs in the air and had hopefully enough people looking through their cameras to detect Gabriel if he came to the surface.

Buffy Summers, the most senior slayer in the city had landed a considerable distance from the SAS troop she had come with.

Parachutes, Humans invented them, started using them with aircraft as a means insert without the need for (fixed wing) aircraft to land at the insertion point. Initially simple dome shaped objects, later crafted into parawings of the kind Daria described to Illyria when they were extracting Winifred from that hell dimension. And velocity 'chutes of the kind the SAS used to insert from concord.

In the demon age, you used flapping wings or levitation spells/telekinesis to fly.

The advantages are that there is no mystical energy signature, same thing with the nuclear weapons, they are constrained by Emc2, but are still capable of causing considerable damage.

It was going to be their nuclear weapons Gabriel will attempt to acquire.

Illyria waved the others to her left.

They obeyed.

She then turned towards a building off to her right (a nursery) and unloaded four rockets at it rapidly.

"WINIFRED, COVERING FIRE." she said as she waved the others around her, she then removed a manhole cover and jumped down unto the sewer.

She had lied about not getting a vector on Gabriel.

She had to move real fast to take advantage of this situation though.

She stopped at a junction with Gabriel metres from it in a perpendicular tunnel, he stopped too.

They had him trapped now, but she couldn't get to the corner with him that close and hope to have the standoff necessary to avoid serious injury to herself.

He backed up a few paces.

He then ran, possibly hoping to get through the junction before Illyria could fire.

He stopped and jumped back before Illyria could fire.

He was attempting to get her to exhaust her ammo.

He ran back the way he had come.

He must have given up.

Illyria ran to the junction and shot the next rocket at Gabriel.

He ducked and the rocket went over his head.

The compression wave threw them across the junction.

Illyria tumbled and sprang to her feet when she ran out of inertia, ready to fire her last round, but Gabriel closed range before she could.

He grabbed her forearms, pushing the rocket round off her arm launcher.

She nutted him, and kicked him back. He then came back in again, they ended up in an almost equal fight.

Until Gabriel got a fingertip strike to her throat, and then followed through with similar blows to relatively sensitive areas, eventually Illyria was on the deck.

Gabriel started removing the weapon from Illyria, she felt his lust grow as he handled her.

"Hmm, not a bad figure for a demon, maybe I'll make use of it later." he said, he squeezed both her buttocks briefly before resuming what he was doing.

He picked up the rocket and reattached it to the arm launcher, leaving Illyria face down in the shit.

He ran towards the sports centre, but was stopped by the approaching SAS troop.

"Okay, alternate route then." he said, getting up out of the sewer.

--

"What were those noises?" asked Quinn.

"Nukes." said Daria.

"How do you know they're nukes?" asked Quinn.

"TV screen flickered in the same pattern to the noises." said Daria.

Quinn looked to where Daria was looking, the TV on CNN hanging from the ceiling in one corner of the cafeteria.

"Oh." she said, turning back to Daria.

"So, are we making progress yet?" asked Daria.

"Doesn't feel like it." said Quinn.

"Guess you're mad at me then." said Daria.

"Huh?" said Quinn.

"Bout the not doing anything." said Daria.

"Could you have?"

Daria thought about this.

Quinn waited.

"I couldn't think of anything, … you were being raped by vampires right in front of me and I couldn't find any way to stop it."

"Oh, … I thought you hated me because of all the gross shit you saw happen to me."

"WHAT? … Quinn, … you didn't make it happen, what is there that I would possibly hold against you?"

Quinn looked at the table for a while, then said "I dunno, it's just having my private parts exposed and prodded like that, made me look disgusting to you, … not very plausible when you use logic I guess."

"Well, I can't say I'm that enthused with the idea of watching you have sex, but that's never going to make me hate you, … unless you deliberately force me to watch, but that's not very likely."

"Oh, okay, … You thought I was mad at you for any of this?"

Daria shrugged and said "yeah, … not very plausible when you use logic, I guess."

--

Gabriel continued along the street, he was almost at the sports centre.

He encountered a load of white smoke.

"Not the SAS or the slayers." said the First Evil.

"Okayyyy." said Gabriel, looking a little concerned, but he continued on in anyway.

As he was running, he felt something strike and puncture his side.

"What the fuck?"

His hand felt the object stuck in him, the tip stuck out the other side had barbs that would stop it going back without causing serious damage, the other end had fins that would stop it going any deeper.

He snapped off the tip, pulled it out completely, and then it exploded.

He was thrown a couple of metres and sustained more wounds from the chunks of shrapnel from the warhead.

The rocket on his arm was dislodged.

He heard footsteps.

He got up and waited for the robot to arrive.

The robot entered view and started swinging with two fire axes.

Gabriel was healing fast, so was able to counter the blows and eventually grab the axes.

The robot let go of the axes and started punching him again.

He stepped back and started swinging with the axes himself.

The smoke was starting to clear.

Every time he stepped back, the robot followed him.

"The others are coming." said the First Evil.

"I KNOW!" said Gabriel, he eventually kneed the robot back and started spinning, this time the robot was on the defensive.

Then the robot managed to grab an axe and spin into him, backhanding him across the face with her fist.

The robot was once again raining blows on him.

Then something kept striking him in the back and sides repeatedly, tearing his flesh apart. The robot pulled back, and Gabriel looked around seeing the SAS unloading USAS12s at him from about 20 metres away.

The next thing he saw was the robot picking up the rocket round and pointing it at Gabriel.

Then everyone else ran several metres and hit the deck, and the robot, after saying "Go go gadget nuke.", shot the rocket at Gabriel.

--

Henno turned towards the spot where the X-ray was standing earlier.

There was just a smoking hole in the tarmac, and an even wider circle that was now bleached slightly.

The robot approached the hole and looked in.

"I think he's dead now." said the robot.

Henno stared and said "Crackin', … … And that was?" he indicated the tube in her hand.

"A nuclear rocket."

Henno nodded and said "Oh, … very nice."

Buffy then ran into view saying "Alright, I'm here, where's the bad guy?"

"Vaporised." said Rebecca, looking mildly amused at Buffy's rushed and unprepared state.

Buffy looked embarrassed and said "Oh, … okay, … I guess that means we're done.", then she asked "There aren't any other bad guys around are there?"

A truck with stakes bolted to the front and the kind of window décor that indicated a vampire in the driving seat entered the area and Wesley got out and asked "what did we miss?"

"The final outcome of the epic global battle." said Henno, as he and the rest of his troop started to walk off.

"Okay." he then looked at Buffy who wasn't moving with the SAS troop and said "anything we can do right now?"

--

"Shouldn't we feel better now?" asked Quinn.

"Maybe that comes later." said Daria.

Daria's phone rang.

"Y'ello?"

"Robodaria here, Gabriel Kent is now confirmed dead, the Cleveland hell mouth is secure. Buffy Summers is with me, we are headed to your current location."

"Acknowledged." said Daria, and Robodaria hung up.

"What was that?" asked Quinn.

"My boss is coming in." said Daria.

"Okay, so, what happens now?"

Daria thought about it and said "Well, we, I mean the slayer force, not us, because we spent most the battle sitting around in Tiffany's head, … We, just saved everyone's ass. But in doing so, caused several hundred million dollars worth of damage, without the kind of legal protection the United States Defence Department has. So I guess the next thing that happens to us would depend on the gratitude of the administration and the understanding of whatever judges and juries handle the cases."

Quinn nodded, then said "we're boned."

--

"Can't I talk to Riley?" asked Buffy.

"No, you can't." said George.

"Just, this is kind of a big decision. I mean, I'm the default commander of the Watchers Council, but I don't have the management experience of Giles, or any of the other watchers-" started Buffy.

But George interrupted with "Your Watchers Council is now a terrorist organisation in our view, and if you are terrorists, you have fewer legal protections than what we give paedophiles. But if you agree to become our supernatural division of the National Security Agency, then you are instead Special Agents with all the legal authority that comes with such positions, now what are you?"

Buffy sighed and said "we're national security agents."

--

"That was the only way we could stay out of jail?" asked Daria.

"Yeah, between the massive property destruction, the stolen police and military property, and Illyria killing several bystanders with Marcus Hamilton, the government was really thin on patience." said Buffy.

"You mean they were laughing maniacally." said Daria.

"You know, Daria, I've had it with you, you always seem to have a smart ass remark on the tip of your tongue and never seem to take anything about your job seriously."

"Excuse me? Where the fuck do you get off telling me I don't take my job seriously?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It MEANS I've spent the last couple of days commanding an entire army group of slayers concerned that I'm going to get a large proportion of them killed, then watching my sister getting sexually abused by vampires, and all that time of doing little else but worry. And there you are, telling me that I'm some sort of cold psycho who lets those under her command die for fun?"

There was silence.

"Sorry about that." said Daria.

"No, it's my bad, … Look, where are you now?"

"I'm waiting for a flight to where they're treating Tiffany. It's close to Lawndale, and I'll be meeting my dad there, me mom was killed in that nuclear explosion near Lawndale, gotta find out what the funeral arrangements are. Then I guess I prepare for my first day of work at the No Such Agency."

Buffy chuckled before saying "I am sorry about blowing up at you earlier, but I just made a snap decision that will have potentially catastrophic consequences without being given the time to decide what to do. Plus Giles and Kennedy are among the dead, both of them being close friends."

"I got to meet them myself, they were good people. We've all had a rough couple of days, I hope we can take a couple of weeks off before showing up to work. It might be useful to talk to Wesley about what Wolfram and Hart were like."

"Yeah, I guess I'll get onto him then." said Buffy.

--

"I do not understand." said Illyria.

"The government of late has been getting increasingly warped. It says it's for human rights and making the world a nicer place to live in, but in reality it's motives have been to look like it's doing something about terrorism without doing something about Israel's bad behaviour." said Wesley.

"In my day, brutality was used to ensure obedience." said Illyria.

"It does as long as you have the power. But it's humiliating for those you oppress, and they'll want you out of power. The problem is that the current administration can pick on those whose opinion doesn't count and make out they are up to something or blame them for some major incident." said Wesley.

"Then they must be killed." said Illyria.

Wesley looked worried, and said "that's probably the wrong approach. We kill this lot, we could easily end up with someone worse."

"Then we must ensure that someone interested in fulfilling our objectives is in a position to take power when we kill or otherwise depose the current administration." said Illyria.

There was some silence.

"Your curiosity is deafening." said Illyria.

"I'm glad you didn't kill them, and that they recovered, but when you were interrogating Daria, Willow and Fred, … "

"Why didn't I kill them when I was done?" asked Illyria.

"Yeah."

"I do not know. … In fact, I've had trouble killing ever since I, … … It must be the emotional attachment my shell felt for them, that is the only way I can explain it, it took all my determination to override that to torture them." said Illyria.

"Hmm, … how do you view this attachment?"

"It, … it is an impediment, but it has by accident saved my life and has enabled me to gain allies, … … I view this attachment as an inconvenience, but it has proven useful, I would need more data before I can make a final determination." said Illyria.

--

End.


	5. Living Dead Girls 5: Twister Harvest

Constraints: Follows 'Living Dead Girls 4: Fighting Machine'

Synopsis: Daria and friends settle into their jobs at the No Such Agency.

Living Dead Girls 5: Twister Harvest.

Content: violence, bad language,

Legal: Casts of Buffy and Angel belong to Mutant enemy, Ultimate force to ITV, Law And Order belongs to NBC, and I ripped something off of (it's linked) there are also characters and scenes that belong to Diane Long and Nemo Blank in there, I've also had help from Brother Grimace, The Angst Guy, Dervish and Roentgen.

--

Part 1.

--

"Fucking hell, what have you been drinking of late?" asked Spike as he and Daria walked up to Jane.

They were in the middle of a USAF bomb range, Jane had 3 welding masks, a bow (a folded steel longbow, with a 3mm steel string, only a vampire or a vampire slayer would want the draw strength of something like that), and a quiver loaded with about 12 arrows.

"Been trying chilli, cottage cheese, brussel sprouts and beet ice cream with my blood, it seems to make it taste better," said Jane, as she pulled out her notebook and looked at the page.

"So, what we doing here," asked Daria.

"Watch," said Jane, as she pulled an arrow.

She then concentrated and did a spell.

She then unslung the bow and shot the arrow off at around 40°, it landed several hundred metres away.

She then picked up the masks and handed them out saying "you're going to love this."

Daria glanced at her mask and said "part of that sounded like a transmutation spell, and another part sounded like a timeframe spell."

"Yep, it's my Gambit spell."

"Gambit: not that frog whose secret weapon is a deck of cards?" said Spike.

"No, he's the frog whose secret weapon is the ability to make things explooooooo- Jane, … …" Daria was frozen in mid sentence as she visibly paled, she then calmly said "Spike, Jane, follow me."

She then shot off at a flat out run away from the arrow, a panicked, adrenaline fuelled attempt to break the sound barrier on foot run.

Jane and Spike looked between her and the arrow, then Jane looked at her watch, saying "SHIT!", she grabbed Spike and pulled him after her as she also ran.

"Oh fuckin' 'ell," growled Spike as he got the hint and put more effort into it.

--

"Daria, you know the arrow doesn't weigh that much right?" asked Jane as she caught up with her friend.

"20 grams, or thereabouts, right?" said Daria.

"Right, 0.02 times 900million gives us-"

"900 MILLION? SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THAT WAS YOUR MISTAKE!" shouted Daria.

"900 million what?" asked Spike.

"Joules per kilo," said Jane.

"THE SPEED OF LIGHT SQUARED IS NOT NINE HUNDRED MILLION, IT'S NINETY THOUSAND TRILLION!"

"Oh, right, … and the yield that gives us is:" said Jane.

"APPROXAMATELY TWO POINT THREE MEGATONS!"

"TWO POINT- JANE, GRAB HER LEFT SIDE!" said Spike as he came up next to Daria and grabbed her belt and her shoulder, Jane did the same, and they picked Daria up, carrying her like a battering ram.

"How long do we have?" asked Spike.

Jane glanced at her watch and said "23 seconds."

"That's never going to be enough," said Spike.

"Ideas?" asked Jane.

"YEAH, NEVER TRY THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND QUIT WATCHING BRAINIAC!" yelled Daria.

"HEY! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME ABOUT IT!" responded Jane. Daria had watched the Sick Sad World-like series during her stay in England.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STARTED DOWNLOADING EPISODES!" responded Daria.

She then performed a spell that sped them up.

Eventually they were approaching the sort of distance they needed to be for any cover to be of any use (outside the fireball radius and with sufficient distance to give an actual shadow)

They encountered a target (A concrete filled tank), there were a number of craters around it, they had filled with water, the tank itself had sunk a little due to liquefaction of the soil over time, this seemed like the best thing they could get behind in the time they had.

"CAN WE USE THIS?" asked Spike.

"GET US BEHIND THAT TANK!" said Daria.

They just about made it.

Mud and water was blown into the air, the tank threatened to turn over on them, but didn't, but the fireball ascended, and was still pouring out heat by the megawatt when the angle was too steep for the tank to shade them.

The two vampires got up and looked at Daria.

She was unconscious from the heat they were being exposed to.

"Oops," said Jane, as she shrugged.

--

Donald entered the room and yelled "A TWO MEGATON DETONATION OCCURRED ON ONE OF OUR BOMBING RANGES, THE FUCKING UN IS GOING APESHIT! WHAT, YOU THINK WE WEREN'T HAVING ENOUGH TROUBLE WITH THE IRAQ THING?"

Jane and Spike looked at each other.

Then Jane asked "How's Daria?"

Donald looked at her with a death glare and asked "how's Daria? … HOW'S DARIA? YOU JUST THRUST THIS COUNTRY INTO THE BOTTOM OF AN EXTREMELY TALL PILE OF DOGSHIT AND ALL YOU CAN ASK IS HOW'S DARIA?"

"Yes, … Well, no, actually, I also lost my favourite bow, it got vaporised in a big nuclear fireball," Jane said, a touch morosely.

The enraged defence secretary screamed and left the room.

"So, that blood flavoring, have you always had a taste for that type of mix?"

"No, in fact, it's only recently I got such a taste, is that normal for vampires?"

"Not as far as I know, we usually prefer human or otter blood," said Spike.

"Right," said Jane.

--

"Boss, with respect, this is an insssssssanely bad idea, … sir," said Rebecca.

"Maybe, but as a Vampire Slayer, you are uniquely placed to develop a course that best suits the classes you will be teaching," said Aiden.

Rebecca just about suppressed a groan, this was an order from a superior officer, but this also struck her as potentially the biggest gaff since Prince William went to a fancy dress party dressed as a Nazi, … no, not potentially, certainly.

"Rebecca, you're not the only member of the special air service to have killed a member of the watcher's council or their slayers," said Aiden.

"They'll remember my face more clearly than anyone else's, especially if they were at Westbury house," said Rebecca.

"Rebecca, you are still the most suitable person to design the course," said Aiden.

"Understood," said Rebecca.

--

Willow visibly fumed, and Buffy looked a little confused.

Buffy's confusion stemmed from the fact Rebecca hadn't actually told Buffy she was the one who had slotted Kennedy.

"Aiden sent me to advise the team that will be teaching firearms proficiency and tactics to your personal, felt that the fact I was a slayer made me essential to designing the curriculum," Rebecca stated, trying to keep as neutral as possible.

"Okay," said Buffy, she then said "I'm still not entirely happy about this, the instructors are all members of the team that attacked us, some of us are still grieving the losses, this arrangement is just asking for trouble."

"I know," said Rebecca.

"It might be a good idea to avoid using live ammo for a while," said Buffy.

"We can't, not for all the training, blanks don't have the recoil impulse characteristics to adequately simulate live fire conditions, it affects marksmanship, there are situations where we do use blanks, but we want to get everyone shooting straight first, that has to be first and a tenth nature," said Rebecca.

Willow and Buffy looked at each other.

"I understand that our presence will be testing, frankly I'd have picked instructors from another regiment entirely-" said Rebecca.

"But the Special Air Service is considered the best combat unit available to us, and this cross training scheme is a condition of us being able to continue our activities, I understand perfectly, I just hope the others will, have you formed a lesson plan yet?" said Buffy.

"We're going to go with the normal weapons course for now, see how that works out, see if any alterations need to be made for that to work," said Rebecca.

"Alright, now, we have assembled your first class, we have purposely avoided personal that witnessed your kills or those who lost friends to you, but unfortunately, there is one person who will have to oversee the training for me from our end that has lost someone to your group."

"Who?" asked Rebecca.

Willow raised her hand "that would be me."

--

"You're healing fast, aren't you?" asked the doctor.

"Witch, heal thy self," said Daria.

"I see," mused the doctor.

"Normally I'd be seeing Tiffany about now," said Daria.

"You're her watcher?" asked the doctor.

"Yeah," said Daria.

"What exactly did you do out there?" asked the doctor.

Daria sighed and said "something the NSA will want to keep top secret for, … well, … ever."

"Daria, thank god you're alright!" came Jakes emotive voice.

"Hi dad," said Daria, as Jake came up and hugged her "Oww, burns, burns."

Jake jumped back and said "oh, sorry." He then looked around and asked "Where's Quinn?"

"Toilet, she's been here for a while."

"Oh, … so, how long have you got off of work?" asked Jake.

"Few days I'd imagine."

"Have you bleached your hair?" he asked, noticing that the back of Daria's hair was now a much lighter shade.

"Nah, Jane bleached it."

"Oh, … looks nice."

Luckilly they were close enough to Lawndale for them to simply drive over. The problem with the NSA though was that they were more interested in using the watchers as analysts than to command the slayers (only 60 were still situated with their slayers). The slayers were essentially left to do their own thing, while they answered to the watchers, they mostly only had phone contact with them, which was less than ideal because that could interfere with communications of reports, and the NSA weren't the only organization into illegal phone taps. This was a serious security risk, and it took longer for the watchers to organize anything with the slayers.

From what Buffy had told her, the UK let them operate with greater independence, but this was probably more down to the relative size of the United Kingdom, it's small size reduced the logistical problems of accessing or surveying it's personal, or the UK government was just less paranoid than the US government.

Some of the slayers were qualified to function also as watchers, so that wasn't too bad for them, it just wasn't helpful to have this new structure imposed on them.

--

"Daria called, apparently there was an accident at work and she'll be off sick for the next few days," said Dr Barbra Saunchez.

"I see," said Tiffany.

"I'm sure she'll be around at the earliest opportunity," said the doc.

"I know," said Tiffany.

Barbra wondered what Tiffany was doing here.

Obviously there had been a few weeks where they were conducting drug assisted and hypnotically assisted interrogations to figure out what threat the First Evil's programming still presented, but honestly, Tiffany was safe for release now.

There was nothing mystical going on besides the slayer strength, there was no activity going on that couldn't be accounted for by Tiffany's personality, the two personae had remained united since the incident where Tiffany had trapped those three people in her mind, and had been progressing well in her recovery.

The problem now seemed to be that Tiffany just didn't want to return to active duty, like she had fucked it up so many times that she was now too scared that she would kill or injure someone by accident again.

There was little she could do about that, as a shrink, she would never know what combat was like.

Fortunately this wasn't just a recent problem.

--

Part two.

--

She made it.

She had to save up her energy to make this work, and that was a very slow rate of charge in that dimension, but it happened at last and she got through.

This way was at least gentler than the other way (landing in a neat crouch instead of an uncontrolled landing that fucked up her ankle and fractured her hip and upper arm), and this time she didn't have to spend all her energy recovering from 3rd degree burns.

Fucking geeks!

Fucking scoobies!

Motherfucking good guys in general!

There was going to be a price for all that shit they had done to her.

She looked around for the first time since getting back, she was certain this was earth and her own dimension, but she had no idea where on earth she was.

She stood up.

There were a lot of people looking at her.

She looked around some more.

There were posters all over the walls that urged the reader to 'vote Zanu PF'.

"Zimbabwe," she said.

A truck full of soldiers drove up to her and arrested her for something ("is it 'cos I is white?") and drove her to the police station, she just sat there recovering, she had caused enough of a disturbance without drawing additional attention from the Watchers Council, she could keep it cool for now.

Of course that might not be possible if these guys decided to get medieval on her, as they were famous for lately, but she could minimize the actual magic to simply blowing tiny holes in their blood vessels, make it look like they died from meningitis or something (it would probably take ages for the coroner to make any kind of determination), pop a few vessels in their brain stems, maybe conjure an alternating current across their hearts (that would be fun to watch, see them die slowly of a cardiac arrest).

They frowned when they saw her smile.

She just shrugged.

--

"Daria?"

"Incorrect." said the Daria looking figure as she continued down the hall to the library.

"Robodaria?"

The girl turned and dropped her cloak, revealing her to be Illyria.

"Illyria. Okay, do you know where Daria is? Buffy has been trying to get a hold of her for ages," said the agent.

"She is in the infirmary recovering from severe burns, did you not hear of the incident with the exploding arrow?"

"Exploding arrow? … No, … I heard of a nuclear explosion that occurred recently on a bomb range."

"That is the incident, I thought this agency dealt primarily with covert investigations, how did the details of the incident escape you?"

"The details are classified need to know, I guess I didn't need to know, … but I do need to get to Daria, thanks," said the agent as he headed off to the infirmary.

Illyria resumed her Daria disguise and headed off to the library where she and Wesley were going to be briefed on something the Initiative had uncovered.

--

"Doesn't look very mystical," said Wesley.

"It's a man who's flying without the aid of an airplane with laser beams for eyes," said Donald.

Wesley looked through the file and found photographs of sections of pavement where the beams had penetrated.

"Okay, but this still looks technological," said Wesley.

"So's that nuclear rocket launcher kit your Miss Burkle invented," said Donald, he then said "Answers soon, or I'm going to see if there's someone more suitable." he then left.

"He is right, there is a strong chance of at least a partially mystical machine here, and we have dealt with robots before," said Illyria.

"Okay, I guess we need to get out there then," said Wesley.

--

"Daria, how could you end up in hospital over a simple experiment?" asked Buffy.

"The experiment did a Castle Bravo on my friend, who failed to mention she was trying out such an insane experiment," said Daria.

" … That would be Jane Lane would it?"

"Yep: She is an artist, and this is how she will **kill** herself," said Daria.

"What?" asked Buffy, not getting the way Daria emphasized 'Kill'.

"Never mind, anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that's it, except for what Castle Bravo is," said Buffy.

"A nuclear shot with an expected yield of eight megatons or less, produced fifteen megatons, Jane expected a yield of 230kg, and instead got around two point three Megatons. And you make me sound cheerful, where's the depression is from?" asked Daria.

"I gave Angel and his team such a hard time over their taking over the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart, and now we're doing something similar," said Buffy.

"That mean you're going to apologize to them for the attitude?"

"Hell no."

"How's things over there anyway?" asked Daria.

"Well, we just received a number of SAS instructors to teach us how to operate a gun, we're going to be instructing them in demonology and magic." said Buffy.

"That won't be tense," said Daria.

"That's the thing about war, once you start killing, it's difficult to stop, especially where the score's so uneven," said Buffy.

"How is everyone handling this arrangement?" asked Daria.

"Well, Willow seems to be holding her temper, and I selected where possible people who have as little connection to those who died and weren't in the groups the SAS did manage to kill members of, but they're still going to feel anger regarding the deaths," said Buffy.

--

"Okay, two kinds of shot you can take, centre of mass, that's for easy acquisition, a whole range of organs within the torso are essential for your survival, and instant kill, where you target the brainstem, tighter target, but your enemy will be dead before he or she hits the floor, … of course, if you want to take your enemy alive, you could hit the soft tissue on the outside of their leg so they can't run away that fast, but mostly we're going to train for situations where you need the enemy dead. Any questions so far?" asked Rebecca.

Willow felt uneasy about Rebecca's lesson so far.

Clear in her mind was the instant those three 45cal. Rounds had entered her girlfriends mouth and punched through the back of her head, severing the brainstem. It had felt to Willow like the worst ice cream headache ever imaginable.

And she had then seen Rebecca go for Giles, the burst starting just above his heart and ending in his nose, the two leaders of the group.

She had then set about killing the rest of the group, who had to pile on because there was no way they could get to cover in the time allotted, she had killed a further 3 in hand to hand combat and had dislocated the arms of a couple of other slayers, crushing the throat of one, she had spent a couple of weeks unable to talk and breathing through a hole in her neck from a tracheotomy.

The SAS don't have a stun setting.

Understatement of the millennium, and we're only 4 years in.

"Okay, getting a gun to spit a bullet is a piece of piss, but getting your bullet into your enemy before they get about 20 into you is a serious bastard of a problem, which can only be solved with practice, that will start tomorrow at the SAS's very own firing range. For right now we'll be discussing the weapons we'll be training with, which will be M16A1s, because the SA80's a piece of shit."

Willow listened through her state of shock as Rebecca described the M16, a 5.56mm gas operated rotating bolt assault rifle that uses up 750 rounds per minute (10.83 continuous a second, about 2.8 seconds of firing time on a 30 round clip), 945m/s muzzle velocity, she briefly touched on the effect of gravity and wind on the bullet's trajectory, but mentioning that the course won't be as geared towards sniping as a more specialized course would be.

"Willow, you alright there?"

Willow looked at the slayer next to her who had just asked this.

"Yeah, why?"

The slayer glanced down at her hands, Willow looked down and saw that her hands were holding a fireball that was glowing furiously.

"Oh, … sorry." She looked at Rebecca, who didn't seem too annoyed at this development, she was patiently waiting for Willow to safe the fireball, which she did.

Rebecca resumed her lecture.

--

Amy had managed to scare the cops into freeing her ("Can you kill me before I telepathically slice your brain stem the way I just did your testicles?") and giving her 4000000$ (Zimbabwe dollars, probably equivalent to 12$ American), but she could easily Obi-Wan her way through the airports without too much of a mystical signature.

In fact, fuck it, fuck paying for a ticket, she might as well have someone hand over an entire aircraft.

In fact, it would be better to avoid the hubs altogether, the Watchers Council were bound to have witches there.

--

"We were just about to make the arrest when suddenly our radios made this awful screeching noise, that wrong footed us so much that we didn't see them pop up until it was too late, they had these guns that shot laser beams at us, bright blue lasers."

"These laser beams, did they taper along their length, or were they of a uniform diameter?" asked Wesley.

"Uniform diameter, and bright, … and they just went through everything, we saw puffs of flame like muzzle flashes around some of the holes, and the doc said that the burn looked like a radiation burn."

Wesley had looked at the burn patterns, as had Winifred, the burn around the exit wound seemed bigger than the one around the entry wound and on the bodies, the size of the radiation burns had increased with the stand off from the armour the beams had penetrated.

"How much radio traffic occurred just before the attack?"

"Minimum necessary, we even used code words, this gang had repelled sting operations before, I guess they just upgraded a few centuries. And the other weapons they were using were something else too, Diamond bullets, RDX propelled, weapons looked similar to P-90s, y'know, like on Stargate? … Anyway, that's all I got for now."

"Okay, thank you, we may need to ask you more questions later," said Wesley as he and the rest of the team departed.

--

Donald entered the room and said "You're free to go for now."

"Yippie," said Jane.

"Finally," said Spike.

As they left Donald said "BUUUUUUT, … if either of you cause us any more trouble, you will regret it. You may have souls now, but you both are going to hell when you die, even you Jane Lane, you got that?"

He waited for an answer.

He turned around.

He left the cell in time to see the two vampires finish reclaiming their belongings from the custody sergeant, they had obviously not stopped to hear his speech.

--

"So, where to?" asked Spike.

"You buying?" asked Jane.

"Get fucked," said Spike.

"Later, boyfriend, food first," said Jane.

--

"That's just sick," said Spike.

"Not yet," said Jane as she drank the cocktail that was only half blood, the other half was stuff that either didn't go together or go on a human or demon palette.

"What, you get sick often?" asked Spike.

"Pretty much every morning for some reason," said Jane.

"Uh, funny, except vampires don't get pregnant," said Spike.

Jane rested a hand on her abdomen, not for the first time feeling the organ underneath that felt like a balloon.

"Whatever's happening, I should probably see a doctor."

--

"Hey T, what's shakin'?"

Tiffany looked up and said "Hi Faith."

Faith entered Tiffany's room and sat down next to her saying "I heard you're still scared you'll go evil again."

"Yeah, … You're not here because the doctor sent you are you?"

"Yeah I am, but I don't think any amount of arguing will get you out there before you're ready, and no one will think any less of you if it takes a decade, … assuming you can endure the boredom."

Tiffany looked at her.

Faith then asked "So, what's it like here? They just talk to you here, or is there, like, bondage too?"

--

"That's definitely a foetus," said the doctor.

"Oooookaaaaayyyyyy, … I thought vampires didn't get pregnant," said Jane, as she lay on the table with the sonar device pressed against her abdomen.

"That was our best knowledge on the subject," said the doctor.

"Backed by hundreds to thousands of years of vampires going bareback without getting preggers," said Spike.

"Then, what's different here?" asked Jane.

Spike sniffed and said "we have souls."

"Okay, so no more unprotected sex," said Jane.

The doctor turned to her and said "Okay, I won't attempt to compel a decision to keep or abort it, but this is uncharted territory, and, … Well, … I'd like to chart it."

"Hell no, breeding's Summer's gig," said Jane.

"What?" asked Spike.

"Spike, … it's probably the antichrist or something, … " Jane was now trying to come up with something that would stop Spike looking at her like she was the most evil thing ever created "Quit looking at me like that."

Spike sighed and said "She's right, we may have souls, but whatever that is in there, probably isn't good."

Jane eventually said "All right then."

--

Winifred dropped the clear fluid onto the object and watched, eventually saying "no mystical signature."

"Diamonds may be more common than most people think, but they aren't that cheap, especially those that big," said Wesley.

"So we're thinking someone made them?" asked Spike.

"There are two non-mystical ways to make a diamond I know of: bombard a target with carbon atoms, or melt carbon under intense pressures."

"Any way to determine which?" asked Spike.

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is," said Winifred.

--

"Well, there's nothing to keep you here on at present, you might as well get back to work," said the doctor.

"Sweet," said Daria as she got off the bed and opened the bag her dad had brought.

Pulling out the first items of clothing, she realized Dad had followed Quinn's advice.

She shrugged and pulled the curtain closed around the bed and started getting dressed again.

--

"Watcher central," answered Dawn.

"How's it going my whitey?" asked Xander.

Dawn chuckled, and replied "What's up?"

"Well, apparently someone hypnotized a pilot into handing over his helicopter, index Z-128CJD, apparently it was a Caucasian woman with an American accent and more scars than a cutter with a crack addiction, she's going by the name 'Amelia Airheart', either an alias, or we finally have an answer to a long running mystery," said Xander.

"I think Amelia disappeared before the helicopter was invented," said Dawn.

"There were autogyro's back then weren't there?" asked Xander.

"Different flight principles are involved with those Xander, do we have any pictures of this woman?"

"One of our witches is doing an E-fit now, we'll have it to you in-" he asked someone in the room, then said "-20 seconds, check your E-mail."

Dawn turned to her computer and opened her browser, she opened the attached file and said "got it, … Xander, does she look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, I just don't know where I've seen her before."

"I'll circulate it," said Dawn.

--

"Daria, you're different today," commented Illyria.

"That's what happens when my sister is put in charge of bringing me a change of clothes when I'm hospitalized, Jane and Spike were been detained for most of my stay, and now apparently Jane's found she's pregnant," said Daria.

"Jane is a vampire," said Illyria.

"She assures me it's no joke and that she's not faking. So, what's going on here?"

"We're checking this bullet to see how it was made," said Winifred, she placed the projectile in the clamps and turned on the laser saying "the laser goes through points I've ground flat, I'm using high ultra violet, because I can."

Daria looked over Winifred's shoulder and commented "the bullet's transparent."

"It is diamond," said Illyria.

"So it'll either be made by bombarding a target with carbon, or-"

"Melted under pressure," said Winifred.

"Yeah, melt under pressure and the crystal has fewer holes," said Daria.

"Someone has a high pressure chamber with a window in it and an industrial laser, the chamber will probably be the more expensive component, we just need to ask around all the distributers." said Winifred.

"It might be an idea to look out for anyone ordering parts that could be used to make a laser," said Daria.

"Parts that- … oh shit," said Winifred.

"No way," said Spike.

"Way, I can think of about 20 ways a suitable laser can be constructed off the top of my head," said Winifred.

"Okay, that case, you could list them, and look for combinations, … Hang on, Donald mentioned laser weapons," said Daria.

"X-ray canons actually," said Wesley.

"Apparently it's easier to, err," started Spike.

"Throw electrons at a magnetic barrier than to work out all the complicated optics needed to focus a coherent light source," said Daria.

" … Yeah, … What you said," said Spike.

"Amazing that they managed to condense the equipment for that into such a small weapon, I mean, X-ray laser of this kind uses a particle accelerator."

"Those use x-rays in the 100s of MeVs range though, you only want it in the keV range for this," said Daria.

"You would need to keep the atmosphere out of your weapon if you want to be accelerating electrons about, I'm wondering how that's being accomplished," said Winifred.

"I guess it's time we set up a stakeout then," said Daria.

--

Fixed wing was MUCH better than rotary wing, flying a helicopter is like balancing on a broomstick.

Amy chuckled at the analogy, being a witch, she was supposed to fly on broomsticks, but that gets draughty, and they might not come with autopilots.

Amy had to change aircraft every so often in order to stay ahead of the various police forces, but that would soon become insufficient, they were soon going to get wise to her mind control, she needed something capable of flying transatlantic soon.

She had mostly been nicking Mig 29s, loaded with nothing but fuel and drop tanks, they had a flight radius of about 1700 miles.

She was mostly tailing passenger carrying aircraft, the radar systems available to the local ATC centres weren't able to tell the shadows apart.

It would probably be better to fly nap of the earth all the way, the terrain would hide her from most control centres and the phone network in rural Africa was extremely limited, and who the fuck's going to complain about military exercises over their house when the military would probably deal with complaints by shooting the complainants?

The problem with that idea was the fuel she'd use on the deck compared to cruise altitudes, she wanted to limit the number of people she mind fucked.

She had managed to find an internet café in Zambia and managed to find out which flights went where, then asked the commander at the base she stole the Mig from what frequencies were used by what ATC centres, asking him about the centres in the middle and far east, the idea being they look for her over there while she punches out over the ivory coast, and steals an aircraft capable of transatlantic flight.

Or just stows away.

Either way, she was going to America and she was going to hurt that nerd that chucked that grenade and any of her friends she happens across.

--

Spike watched as two people entered from one side, carrying suitcases, and another two entered carrying briefcases from the other side of the open area between the two large buildings of the abandoned textiles factory, going nuts from the lack of smoking he could achieve (no heat sources allowed), he used the camera Winifred had made for him to record the activity.

He remembered the briefing where Winifred described the camera.

"The camera uses a clockwork spring to pull a chemical film through the focal area which is designed to work in low light, you will need to manually focus the lens because the system can't have any electrical parts, except for the mic which needs a light source to imprint the sound amplitude onto the film, that uses an electrostatic generator and a neon bulb to create the light for that, but the circuit has too much impedance to resonate clearly for any of the sensors that they would probably have, are you with me so far?" asked Winifred.

"Yes," he said.

"You didn't," said Winifred.

"No, I didn't," Spike reluctantly admitted.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"S'okay, you said something about a manual focus?"

"Yes. It uses this lever on the side to rapidly focus the lens. I'll run you through using this a few times, it's kind of a pain to use, but it works-" Spike accidentally brought the conversation to a close by tossing his used cigarette into a cup of fruit juice, to Winifred's look, he winced as he said "Bollocks, you weren't done with that?" She shrugged and said "No, but it wasn't very good, too salty, I mean, who puts salt in fruit juice?" She then returned to the subject at hand. He had spent the time between the briefing and arriving on site practicing with the manual focus, and was now capable of focusing fast enough to be able to do the job. 

They had decided not to leave the cops in harms way, instead tipping off the mafia that someone was attempting to smuggle in weapons intended for use against them, getting a rival gang involved seemed better than letting cops die.

Spike watched as they carried out the deal, a briefcase full of cash for four large bags full of something white and powdered (coke, heroin, or something else).

Then the fireworks started.

Really thin, brilliant white, blue tinged lines connected to points off to the left with something in the sky.

As Spike watched, a human sized flying object started glowing bright blue and shot past with a loud bang.

There were more flashes from ahead and behind him, more of these people were flying around shooting up the place, anyone who wasn't the four in the middle was getting strafed.

The smell of ozone wafted over him.

What had Winifred said would happen to the air the concentrated X-rays would pass through?

It would get ionized, form ozone, nitrogen oxides, nitrogen dioxides.

The flying men came up more slowly, giving Spike his first good look at them, he caught wings folding up into their packs as they changed from level flight to hover, using really small jets attached to the hips and shoulders, the four hip jets produced the majority of the thrust, the four shoulder jets just kept them upright, using varying amounts of power to do so. Some of them started flying sideways around the buildings, others hovered over fixed locations.

He then noticed something on their chests.

They all seemed to have breasts.

They also wore the sort of equipment vests you see a lot of soldiers wearing on operations.

There was no way they could be controlling those things if they were human though.

Suddenly they raised their arms and started shooting the buildings with their X-ray cannons.

Had they realized he was there?

Eventually they were done, they flew off into the night and the gangsters parted ways.

Spike then headed to get the phone, he then came across the scent of roasted flesh.

He headed through the building and found someone with civilian clothes and one of those P-90 things.

The man was still alive, but wouldn't be if his injuries weren't treated.

He turned his weapon to Spike, but Spike was on him too fast, grabbing his weapon arm and saying "easy mate, I'm here to save you." He then placed the weapon to one side and said "do you have a phone on you?"

"No, they target anything that can receive a signal, who are you?"

"Errm, … I don't know if I can tell you that, look, help will be arriving soon, what do you know of what happened here?"

"Those angels of death or whatever they are, they've been protecting our rivals and killing our people en masse, we don't know where they've been getting their tech from, but they're just, … they can see you wherever you hide, like they can see your body heat or something."

They were right.

Spike picked up the weapon and was about to ask him where he got it when he suddenly noticed a smell.

He sniffed it, and tried to place the scent.

He then asked "What about these? The mutant P-90s?"

"Errm, … I don't know if I can tell you that," he said.

Spike said "well, your gang just happens to be well armed enough to be considered terrorists, which means, no rights to be treated as a human." and he then pressed the muzzle of the weapon against the man's shin and discharged one shot through the bones.

"AAAAAOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!" he cried.

"So, who are your bosses?"

Spike waited a few seconds and then pressed the muzzle against his knee.

"DRUSILLA, IT'S DRUSILLA AND SHAUN, THEY'RE OUR BOSSES, THEY PROVIDE ALL OUR TECHNOLOGY, OKAY?"

"Okay then," said Spike, as he got up to get some help, he then said "Oh, by the way, anyone asks, you shot yourself by accident."

--

Part 3:

--

"Drusilla, who is she then?" asked Donald.

"Insane vampire from the Victorian era, sired by Angelus, she then sired me, last I heard of her, she was in Lawndale, subordinate to Amy Madison, a witch and an old friend of Willow's who went dark side," said Spike.

"And never came back," said Daria.

Spike continued "Anyway, it's actually them who gave us the hint that beer can sized nukes were possible, but if they're not the ones behind the angels of death we saw earlier, then who is?"

"Robodaria?"

The robot had been replaying the footage back in her CPU and analyzing everything. She pulled the SCART lead out of the back of the VCR and stuck it in her arm, and the TV activated seemingly on it's own, she played the appropriate bits as she said "their weapons are located on their back packs and in packs strapped to their arms, they didn't seem to operate any external controls for their equipment which leads me to conclude they are connected to their equipment by a non-mechanical means, as I would be to a UAV, or-" everyone's phone rang, interrupting the briefing.

They all answered, and through them, Robodaria said "your cell phones."

They all looked at her darkly.

The robot moved onto another bit and said "where they are hovering there are things that become more apparent, their hands move their fingers purposelessly when empty, their chests expand and contract, also, their eyes." She moved onto a part where one is hovering around firing at rival gang members.

The visors got a little darker for several frames where the weapon was being discharged, the eyes irises were dilated, the eyelids blinked. "They have more human mannerisms than would be necessary for their tasks. Blinking and hand movements use energy, and waste CPU runtime. And the device protecting the eyeballs would not be needed by a robot because it's less hassle to build the components into the robot's eyes. also the luminosity here is not a problem for robots, they wouldn't experience the discomfort that humans or other organic life forms would. My conclusion is that they are cyborgs." said Robodaria.

"We encountered some cyborgs while we were working for Wolfram and Hart." said Wesley.

"Ohhh yeah, your dad was there for that, wasn't he?" said Spike.

"Careful! Spike." said Wesley, obviously irritated with Spike on this issue.

Daria's phone rang, and she answered "Y'ello?"

"That contraction of the words 'Yeah' and 'Hello' irritates me deeply," said Illyria.

"Okay, what you got?" asked Daria.

"The gang does not appear to know who the flying warriors are, apparently they work for those who sold the gang the diamorphine. They seem to be the cheapest source of the substance available, if there are no further orders, I will return to base."

"Good, thanks," said Daria, she then hung up saying "Illyria says the cyborgs belong to their suppliers, she's on her way back now."

"Those aren't the same as the ninja bots we encountered at Wolfram and Hart though," said Wesley.

"In that they're packing futuristic weapons?" asked Spike.

"The ninjas at wolfram and hart were genderless, these individuals have breasts, the ones we encountered at wolfram and Hart only used a glamour when they had to," said Wesley.

"Whereas these guys stand out like a sore thumb, if you want to use a glamour, why not simply cloak?" said Daria.

"We're lacking empirical data, we're going to have to await Illyria's infiltration of the suppliers for any useful information to be generated," said Robodaria.

"Agreed, we need to plan this right away. Meanwhile, this rival gang, we don't know who it was that came up with those nukes. Amy's more mystical than nuclear mechanical, Drusilla's bat shittier than the bat section of the world market in guano. We haven't seen any nuclear incidents that weren't caused by Angel investigations actions against their opponents, either the guy who invented the weapons is dead, or they are simply saving them for something special," said Daria.

"Like what?" asked Wesley.

"World domina-, … Amy must have told them to prepare for world domination while she distract- … well, assuming that's true, we bought some time, but eventually they're going to just go 'Fuck it' and start taking over the world without orders," said Daria.

"It just so happens that their forces are about balanced against each other," said Wesley.

"No they're not, those cyborgs kicked everyone's ass," said Spike.

"That won't last, Dru or someone else high up in their chain of command will eventually order in a team of vampires, if they do that, there's a good chance the cyborgs will start having trouble," said Wesley.

"We need to find them both simultaneously," said Daria.

"There is another thing that concerns me," said Robodaria.

"What's that?" asked Daria.

"The amount of energy those flying warriors expended was in excess of what they could achieve with any chemical system, flammable or electrolytic," said Robodaria.

"They're nuclear?" asked Daria.

"Or mystical," said Robodaria.

"Where would they be getting nuclear materials from?" asked Donald.

"Just about any source of hydrogen available. I don't think they were packing a fission plant of any kind, that would weigh them down so much that they would struggle to remain airborne, radiothermic generators don't pack the power for the observed energy expended, they are most likely fusion electric," said Robodaria.

"If they're using mystical energy, that can be transmitted in bulk over extreme distance," said Wesley.

"If it's not, there are ways to create wormholes between the source and every unit, but that would probably be way more complicated than building fusion reactors, but it would allow them to connect their units to an unlimited sized power plant over a practically unlimited distance," said Winifred.

"Okay, it would help if we could capture one," said Donald.

"Well, if they aren't mystically aware, there might be a way to achieve this," said Daria.

--

"How can it not be working?" asked Jane.

"I'm sorry, it just isn't," said the doctor.

They had been trying to abort the foetus for several hours.

The first techniques tried were the chemical ones, but they weren't working (normally it takes more than a day to be certain, but they had access to an MRI, and so were able to track the drugs through Jane's system, none of them went where they were meant to), so they moved onto the mechanical ones, but all they managed to do was severely bruise Jane's cervix.

The fact that Jane was a vampire meant that by all rights, the foetus shouldn't have any food or oxygen off of Jane, but it was getting it somehow, and somehow the various chemicals they were using were being excluded.

Absolutely none of this made sense, but then most of anything mystical didn't make any sense, it just seemed to work, it was like if you encountered relativistic effects such as length contraction or time dilation without having been schooled in the relevant physics, you don't know how it works, it just does.

"There must be a mystical field around it, that's about the only explanation I got, I'm sorry, but you need to see a witch about this."

Jane sighed and said "right," Thinking 'I guess Spike will be happy.'

--

Daria's phone rang.

"Joy's alias," said Daria.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was- … Oh, wait, … Okay, Daria, listen, we've identified Amy Madison in this dimension, Willow's headed over now to help you," said Xander.

"Okay, where was Amy last seen?" asked Daria.

"She was last seen stealing a fulcrum, it was recovered in the Ivory Coast, the seat some distance further, she was seen in various locations approaching a UN depot, we think she's headed to the United States."

"Sweet," said Daria.

"Uh, … You are being sarcastic, right?"

"Not really, no. this might help us out a lot with this gang Drusilla's running, we should be able to follow her to base," said Daria.

"Okay, … just watch your back, … and watch what you pick up, or wish, … and don't wish for songs and dances, trust me, that just, … -"

"That was YOU?" asked Daria, now seriously annoyed with him.

"errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, …. … yeah, that was me, I'm the asshole, can we get back to the impending doom of an insane evil witch that wants you dead?"

"Sure, but when we meet face to face, I'm going to want a word with you about that spell."

--

"I could use a laugh," said Jane.

"Right, just remember what her powers were like before she got sucked down a portal, you can be certain this will be a serious level fight," said Daria.

"Give me a chance to work off some of my preggo moodswings then, won't it?" said Jane.

"You're just mad that she made you jump out a 3rd story window and then you missed the look on her face when she was sucked into the portal," said Daria.

"Do faces with 3rd degree burns even have looks?" asked Jane.

"Point is that this is going to be extremely difficult, and you're 4 months pregnant-"

"Nooooo chance of a miscarry, believe me, I tried," said Jane.

"Alright then, as long as you're sure."

"Absolutely," said Jane.

--

"Amy was observed leaving an aircraft at a UN depot, she now seems to be headed to Lawndale," said Donald.

"Which means she's more interested in revenge than world domination at this point. Okay, let's set a trap," said Daria, she had her team assembled (Jane, Willow, and Illyria) in the NSA's library, which seemed to be the watchers favorite briefing room.

"We don't want her to detect a trap, so she must not sense us there," said Willow.

"That means another witch will have to jam her," said Daria.

"That will be your job," said Willow.

"I've been practicing, but I'm barely above complex telekinesis," said Daria.

"We'll lend you some power," said Willow.

"'kay," said Daria.

"We'll meet Amanda in Lawndale, she'll lend you half, I'll lend you most, hopefully that will weaken my signal enough for you to jam her. While you and Amanda are doing that, the rest of us will be getting ready to capture her."

"And how will we be doing this?" asked Daria.

"I have some spells that can drain mystical energy, but if I get it wrong, I'll kill her, and we don't get our intelligence," said Willow.

"Okay then, looks like I'm going home," said Daria.

--

"They gave you time off?" asked Quinn, looking vaguely hopeful.

"No," said Daria, as she entered the house carrying her USAS 12.

"Okay, what's going on?"

"That's need to know," said the suit behind Daria.

"Amy Madison's returned to this dimension. Shortly before learning this, we found out that Drusilla, one of her vampire XOs was still around, and possibly building a nuclear equipped army. Amy's headed here, we're going to attempt to capture her," said Daria.

"I said-" started the suit.

"She needed to know, Amy's coming straight here, and the last thing I did to her before sending her off to another dimension was toss an incendiary grenade at her, she might go after Quinn to get at me," said Daria.

"So I just became a target for a psychotic witch whose real problem is with you?" asked Quinn.

"Yeah, sorry about that. You should pack some stuff and stay over at Sandi's place," said Daria.

"Right," said Quinn as she headed upstairs.

The agent behind Daria stepped in front of her and said "does the concept 'Top Secret' not mean ANYTHING to you?"

"She knows the situation, so does Sandi, and I will not put either of them in unnecessary danger."

"And if they use this information to enhance their image at school?"

"They won't, they've taken to studying, and Brains don't rank on the social hierarchy, neither do freaks, or anyone who associates with either, 'sides, these tales are wayyyyy too tall for anyone hearing them from a high school student to believe," said Daria.

Quinn came downstairs with an overnight bag and said "I get a lift?"

Daria held out the keys to the agent.

He glowered and eventually took the keys and headed off with Quinn.

Daria closed the door and pulled her cell phone.

--

Willow and Illyria sat in the Lane living room with Amanda and Jane.

The lane house was not too badly damaged in the blast, it had been forced sideways 11 degrees, but a bit of reinforcement to the damaged struts had made it safe again, and they had then repaired the damaged finish sufficiently to weatherproof the house once more, the leaning casa of Lane had survived in a uniquely Lane way.

The sections of roof that had been destroyed by mortar fire had also been repaired, Amanda was less than pleased that the contents of the attic had been sucked out through the holes in the roof by the nuclear powered compression wave, even if she had forgotten what was up there, it was still possible she had lost items of personal significance, she was thankful that the house wasn't taken completely apart like some of the others.

The Deckler house had to be completely rebuilt, having been lifted into the air by it's massive sail area with it's foundations weakened by the attempt to squash the Decklers with their own house. Then it had been sucked back onto it's own foundations by the rarefaction zone, landing upside down. It's architecture had not been built with strong winds in mind, it was a wonder it had survived that hurricane the other year.

And now the Lane house was the middle of a conflict zone again.

It had been several minutes since Willow had received the call from Daria, the next contact will be from the agents supervising the surveillance on Amy.

"So, you take the no such Concorde here?" asked Jane.

"No, teleported," said Willow.

"That takes a lot of energy," said Illyria.

"Yeah, need the whole coven to send me this far," said Willow.

"That would have created one hell of a spike, that's probably why Amy was using non-mystical means to get back here," said Amanda.

"You and Amy were once close friends," said Illyria.

"Yeah, we were, then she ended up misusing her magics, I went down a similar road, but came back, I guess she's doing the same thing only more slowly, plus she didn't have a team such as I had, if she had, then perhaps she would have been an ally instead of a mortal enemy," said Willow.

Willow's phone rang, she answered and said "Amy's approaching Daria's house."

"Right." Jane pulled her phone and rang Daria, saying "game on," as soon as Daria answered.

--

Daria waited as Jane relayed the information from Willow, her shotgun ready for use, loaded with alternating FSHE and QB8.

Quadrangle buckshot (QB8) was essentially 000 buck, except with steel wedges for balls, these were capable of slicing through armour and would do more damage than a flechette would (although a flechette would be better for penetration, the "damage" would be laughable), and while it would be inaccurate like all cluster projectile rounds, they were anticipating close quarter battle, this distance would be perfect for QB8.

Besides, this was just to divert Amy's attention from Amanda and Willow, not to kill her.

Daria flipped up the sight's HUD, in case she needed it.

The sight was another perk that came from joining the NSA: a CCIP sight, Constantly Computed Impact Point.

Damn useful, but it was also a reminder that she was working for a shifty at best government agency under a stupid she hoped administration, and she might end up doing evil work or making extremely hard choices.

What was worse was that she had no idea what the nature of those hard choices would be, just that they would have to be made.

She was stood next to the corner between the lounge wall and kitchen wall, ready to erect a shield, she was already using her borrowed magic to jam Amy's senses, but she imagined Amy would come in fast and hard throwing everything she had at Daria, Willow and Amanda would have almost fuck all time to act when Amy got inside the-

"She's moving on," said Jane.

"What?" asked Daria.

"Amy passed your house, she should have gone in, she slowed when she passed, so we're certain she knows you're there," said Jane.

"Okay, where's she headed?" asked Daria.

"Hang on," said Jane.

Daria waited.

"She's headed here," said Jane.

"Okay, count down to her arrival, I'll teleport in when she arrives, hopefully that will help distract her while Willow leeches her." said Daria.

--

Amy headed towards the front door, ready to carry out her plan.

She couldn't sense much, Amanda Lane was jamming her, so she was just going to have to do this the old fashioned way: look around for her target.

She opened the door and felt an energy spike behind her and broke to a run as she moved through the house, and found who she was looking for.

--

Illyria approached Amy, Willow was behind Amy, Amanda was off to the side, Daria was off to the left now, she shouted "EYES!", warning the friendlies of the danger of ricochets before firing at Amy, but Amy erected a shield around just herself and Illyria.

Illyria found this to be curious, Amy couldn't affect her with her magics, so this was pointless and suicidal.

Daria and Amanda set about taking down Amy's shield, Amy threw a punch, Illyria intercepted it, but Amy was spoofing, she instead turned her palm to Illyria's and Illyria felt her body turn into pain for a few seconds.

--

Daria awoke, she looked around the room, everyone else was unconscious, and she was, … looking at herself?

She was now next to Amy, and, … okay, that must be Illyria over there.

What's with these fucking colours?

And why did these weird tastes seem to emanate from everyone else?

And: … waaaaiiiiiiit a minute.

She looked down at her hands.

They were Illyria's hands.

"Ho boy."

--

Part 4.

--

(Author's Note: This is a bit difficult, so bear with me here, because I need to explain a little of the fic I'm crossing over with.

Diane Long's Fic Undone and its immediate sequel Restoration basically puts Daria in a bad relationship with a publisher (Dominic Grayson) she ends up working for, she eventually comes to hear him plotting to enslave her at this party he's hosting, and she discharges a handy drink at him.

He then drags her out of sight and attempts to bully her into apologizing for her actions, he slaps her, she escapes before he can do more, she and Trent (who were in a relationship until the events of Undone) get back together and Daria spends the next fic, Retribution, getting over a load of sexual abuse that apparently happened while she was with Domonic.

I would obviously have preferred to hyperlink this so that only those who need an explanation are the ones who have to read this, but I couldn't nail it down to the chapter, just the web page, which is a bit to take in when you really want a summary.)

Daria woke up wondering what had happened.

'Let's see', she thought, 'I was at a dinner party that I was told was a book launching, turns out it was a party and I was merely there as arm candy…. Oh yes, then I heard Dominic describing what I submitted to in pornographic detail, at which point, I unloaded a flute of Champagne at him, calling him a bastard (pathetic much? Should have broke the base off the flute and jammed that through his eye! Stupid delayed vengeance fantasy).

'Then he grabs me, pulls me into his office, locks the door, starts threatening me, ordering me to apologize to him in public.

'Wasn't gonna happen, I unlocked the door behind my back continuing the argument, he smacks me…. '

Her eyes snapped open, and she shot to her feet, dragging something up with her that she had been gripping the whole time.

She looked at it and realized it was an enormous gun.

"AHHHH!" she cried, dropping it.

She looked around seeing other people on the floor. Some were looking at her. She identified Jane and Amanda Lane (both looked much younger), a redheaded woman who looked like Alyson Hannigan out of American Pie, a girl in a red leather bodysuit with blue highlights in her braided pigtails and blue paint on her skin, and a brown haired woman who was still unconscious.

"Illyria?" asked the leather freak.

Daria looked down at herself and quickly worked out this was her own body, only younger, she said, "No, I'm Daria."

"No, I'm Daria," said the leather clad woman.

Daria eventually realized who the leather freak was: "No, you're Stacy, one of Quinn's friends."

Jane then said "If you're both Daria, where's Illyria?"

--

Dominic Greyson had no idea what had just happened, one minute he had her in her place, the next…she had turned into Xena or something.

This change had occurred just after he slapped her across the face, he could see the fear in her eyes before, then something more akin to irritation the next as he told her she would know her place.

Her defiant stare had prompted him to hit her again, but he couldn't get a blow in before she struck him in his upper arms with her fingertips, making them go dead.

She had then looked around in confusion and located her glasses, she had then looked at her reflection in the window and said "This is Daria's body…. this is several years in the future," before asking him to identify himself.

"Who you trying to be? Seven Of Nine?" asked Dominic.

"I am Illyria, God King of the primordium. I was resurrected in the body of Stacy Rowe, but now something has caused me to be transplanted to Daria's body, and this appears to be some distance into the future."

This just HAD to be a wind up.

His arms weren't recovering fast enough, so he went to kick her across the face.

But she did the same thing to his legs as she had done to his arms.

She had then gone through his Rolodex and written down a few numbers on a post-it and headed out.

As soon as he could stand again, he was pressing charges.

Except he'd have to admit he was beat up by a woman.

Okay, fuck that, soon as he could move again, he was teaching Daria a lesson.

--

Stacy cocked her head and eventually asked "what's the last thing you remember?"

"The…who's Illyria?" asked Daria.

"A warrior monarch from the demon age, got killed, entombed, and resurrected in Stacy, only I've Quantum leaped into her body, you've quantum leaped into mine…. "

"I'm dead, aren't I?" asked Daria.

"No, I'm dead," said Jane, as she briefly vamped out and back.

This alarmed Daria.

"Is Jane not alive in your dimension?" asked Stacy…or Daria from this dimension…. Daria looked at the unconscious woman at Stacy/Daria's feet and asked "is she dead?"

"I don't know," said Stacy/Daria, she turned to the redhead and asked "Willow?"

"Hang on," said Willow, she walked over to her and said, "She's alive, hang on."

Willow produced some weird item and touched it against the unconscious woman and some weird plasma or something appeared between them.

She looked up at Stacy/Daria and said "she's safe now." She then turned the woman's hand over and said "Draconian Katra," as she carefully removed its rings from the woman's fingers.

"What's that?" asked Daria.

"Body swap device, normally only swaps the two people whose palms are pressed against it, except she tried it on Illyria, whose shell has unusual mystical properties," said Stacy/Daria, who then reached down to the woman.

"Wait, allow me," said Jane, as she ran over to them.

Stacy/Daria stepped back as Jane grabbed the woman by her clothing and lifted her to her feet, saying, "Hey asshole, wake up!"

The woman stirred, then awoke with a look of serious alarm, she looked around and said "Iit didn't work."

"It did something. What was the plan, beat the crap out of us with Illyria's shell?" asked Stacy/Daria.

"No, the plan was to use Daria to kill you all, since she's a gun nut, I should have had an easy time with it since your guard would temporarily be down."

"Okay, why did you try this on Illyria?" asked Stacy/Daria.

"She looked like…who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Daria, and apparently that's--" she pointed at Daria's body "--also Daria. Now, what I want to establish, is where the fucking hell Illyria is?"

--

"WHO IS IT?" asked Jane.

Illyria thought about her response, and deciding it more expedient to borrow the body's identity, said "IT'S DARIA!"

"YOU LOST YOUR KEY OR SOMETHING?" yelled Jane.

Illyria looked through Daria's possessions, finding a bunch of keys.

She tried them sequentially, and then entered.

It took some exploring, but she eventually found Jane in bed upstairs, her leg in a cast.

"You are injured."

Jane looked at her in surprise and eventually said "yes?"

Illyria looked at the window and saw Jane's reflection in it and said, "You also have a reflection; you have also aged the time I left. This is not the same time line as I was in."

Jane blinked and finally asked "what's with the shiner?"

"I believe the man in the suit in that office I was in was assaulting me, attempting to intimidate or possibly hospitalize or kill Daria," said Illyria.

"You're not Daria?" asked Jane.

"No, I am Illyria. I got displaced from my body and implanted in this one. Your Daria is somewhere else, in my home continuum. You are a vampire, and you and Daria are National Security Agents that investigate mystical disturbances, are you aware of magic in this dimension?"

Jane couldn't think of an answer to this.

"I am inclined to believe you at best have no idea what I am discussing with you, or possibly think I am your Daria undergoing a mental ailment, I need to find a witch." Illyria then left a very confused Jane.

--

"Okay, Willow, Amanda, what do we do?" asked Daria.

Amanda rubbed her chin while Willow ran her hand through her hair sucking air through her teeth, and Willow eventually said, "I'll need to read up on this."

"Yeah, this'll definitely need some research," said Amanda.

"Okay then, wrap her up, let's get back to base," said Daria.

"Right," said Jane, she pulled out a big reel of duct tape and threw Amy to Daria, while the other Daria looked on in confusion. Amanda went upstairs for some overnight stuff, and Willow grabbed the USAS 12 and headed outside.

"So… this heaven, hell or purgatory?" asked the other Daria.

--

As soon as they were back at their headquarters, they placed Amy in a cell and headed to the lab with Wesley and Winifred to discuss their next move.

"Faith's on her way in, but I doubt that she'll be able to help, it's not like she's seen that many Draconian Katras," said Daria.

"Which means we'll have to talk to Amy," said Wesley.

"Oooooh! Ooooooh! Let me! Let me!" said Jane.

"You know anything about torture?" asked Wesley.

The other Daria froze in her tracks. Daria, who suddenly realized how her other self might react, stopped with her, and asked, "you all right?"

The other Daria looked afraid.

"Look, sorry to alarm you, but I think in this case we're going to have to use whatever we can to get the intel we need, and getting Amy to tell us what she did is a part of that, and we SO don't have the time for this," said Daria, as she continued on.

The other Daria followed her saying "Hi, I'm Daria, who are you? Because there's no way you're me!"

"Daria, things are different here."

"What? DSN's 'Cross Over' different, or 'Event Horizon' different?"

"Okay, look, the situation is that we're in the wrong bodies, you're in the wrong dimension, the person in your body has no idea what your situation is in your dimension, and the sooner we sort this, the less likely it is that Illyria will fuck your situation up beyond all repair, okay?" said Daria.

"No, not really," she turned to Jane saying "and you, the Jane I know wouldn't be so keen to torture people."

"You'd have to know the history between us," said Jane.

"WHAT HISTORY COULD POSSIBLY EXCUSE THIS?" asked the other Daria.

"HOW ABOUT TRYING TO KILL US ALL? OR ATTEMPTED GLOBAL INSURRECTION?" yelled Jane.

"PEOPLE TRY TO KILL COPS ALL THE TIME, DOES THAT MEAN THEY SHOULD GO 'FUCK THE RULES' AND START GOING AROUND BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE?"

"Start?" asked Daria, she then winced at that crack, and said "Look, I'm not too happy about using torture either, but while we're also looking for leads, it might turn up something useful, and as I said before, the faster we get you back to your dimension, the better for all concerned."

"Right," growled the other Daria, obviously not able to think up any further arguments against their plans.

--

"I thought as much, I followed them a couple of nights ago, he was trying to force her into a cab, trying to get her to his place. I also got a look at her new neighborhood, not the sort of place you want to leave your emaciated female friend in if you know what I mean," said Trent.

"So she's just flipped her lid?" asked Jane.

Trent sighed and said "what do we do? I don't really want to involve the police, but I might have trouble finding her on my own."

"Check her place. You got your cell phone?"

"Yes, I'll call you if I find her," he said as he headed out.

--

Daria approached the other Daria as the others (minus Jane who was preparing to talk to Amy) discussed the factors that could have affected the Draconian Katra's effects.

She wasn't really surprised her other self was offended by the fact that the indigenous Daria was so willing to accept the use of torture on prisoners, in fact, she found it faintly disturbing too, it made her wonder what kind of a person she was, but the main thing was to try to keep her other self calm.

"You all right there?"

The other Daria turned around and just stared at her for about 20 seconds.

The taste that was emanating off of her changed.

These tastes seemed to alter with emotional states.

And for some reason, Willow's emotions had a faint trace of strawberries,

But her other self's emotions tasted like bile, as if Daria was gargling vomit.

Her other self turned away.

Daria stood there.

"What do you think we're going to be able to discuss here?" asked the other Daria.

"My low self esteem."

Bile turned to chicken antimatter vindaloo as the other Daria turned to her sharply, shouting "HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT'S FUNNY?"

"LOOK, I TOLD YOU I WOULDN'T BE DOING THIS IF I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS NECESSARY!" said Daria.

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT IS NECESSARY?" asked the other Daria.

"BECAUSE AMY'S GOT NO OTHER INCENTIVE TO HELP US, OKAY? WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING, ILLYRIA'S USED TO HAVING ALL THIS STRENGTH, AND YOUR BODY IS DOING STUFF THAT YOU DON'T WANT IT TO RIGHT NOW."

"OH, SO WE'RE DOING IT BECAUSE IT'S CONVENIENT? WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF SHE CAN HELP!"

"SHE CAN GIVE US INFORMATION THAT MIGHT BEAR FRUIT!"

"AND WHAT IF YOU GET SUSPECTED OF SOMETHING WITH NO SUBSTANTIAL PROOF?"

"WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT SOMEONE WE COULD BE WRONG ABOUT, WE FUCKING SAW AMY TRY TO KILL US ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS!"

"SO THIS IS VENGEANCE THEN?"

"NO, ALTHOUGH AMY HAS A LOT COMING, THIS ISN'T ABOUT VENGEANCE!"

"WEL THIS CAN'T BE ABOUT GATHERING INFORMATION, YOU KNOW TORTURE IS NO GOOD FOR THAT!"

"Actually it is," said Wesley.

"OH REALLY? ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE GETTING THE CORRECT ANSWER, OR THE MOST LIKELY ANSWER TO GET YOU TO STOP AND LEAVE LONG ENOUGH FOR THEM TO LEAVE?" asked the other Daria.

"WE DO THIS CASE BY CASE, WE MOSTLY DON'T, IN FACT THE GREATER PROPORTION OF OUR EFFORT INVOLVES SCENE INVESTIGATION AND SUSPECT OBSERVATION!" said Daria.

--

Faith entered the lab hearing the raised voices.

She saw Daria and Illyria in a shouting match on one side of the lab, Wesley, Winifred, and Willow on the other.

She eventually got tired of hearing them go at it and shouted "HEY!"

Everyone looking at her, she asked "What's going on?"

"Body swap," said both Daria and Illyria simultaneously.

Faith approached the others and noticed something lying in a tray. "That isn't what I think it is, is it?"

She had received a call while on patrol, apparently Daria, Willow, and Winifred needed her to take a look at something. Illyria was there too.

"'fraid so," said Illyria, she and everyone else had now calmed down.

"'frai--okay, this I just gotta hear," said Faith, realizing Illyria "had no use for contractions such as ''fraid'." as she leaned against one of the work benches.

"Amy Madison tried to body switch with me in order to infiltrate and sabotage us in vengeance for sending her packing to another dimension without her face, but she accidentally shook hands with Illyria instead, and that caused the device to malfunction" said Illyria.

"Aaaaand you are…?"

"Daria."

"And Amy's in your body?"

"No, Amy's in her own, I'm also Daria, only, from another dimension, assuming this isn't some sort of nervous breakdown. … or The Afterlife," said the occupant in Daria's body.

"Okay, so, what am I doing here?" asked Faith.

"We need to find out who made it, how it was put together, this devices particular idiosyncrasies could help us, I want to know if it looks identical to the one you used on Buffy or if it looks different," said Daria.

"Hey, I know where I've seen you before-" started the other Daria.

"No, I'm not Eliza fucking Dushku off of Tru Calling," said Faith, really annoyed at hearing someone mistake her for that actor for the hundredth trillionth time.

"Oh… okay," said the other Daria.

Faith returned to the issue and lifted the device and looked at it saying "bit of a long shot, I mean, that was three, four years ago, can't you ask Amy?"

"Jane's doing that now," said Daria.

--

Jane entered Amy's cell, where Amy was strapped to a wheelchair in a straightjacket, and said , "Hi Amy, are you going to tell me where you got your Draconian Katra device from?"

"No."

Jane pulled a bottle and a syringe and started drawing the fluid into the syringe saying "cool."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" asked Amy.

"Nope, it's supposed to hurt you." Jane then put the bottle back in her pocket and pulled an alcohol wipe, removing it from it's packet, she wiped a spot on Amy's neck, and pushed the air out of the syringe before pushing it into Amy's neck.

Amy felt the fluid burn her flesh and waited for Jane to say something.

"Do you know what capsaicin is?"

Amy thought and said "no."

"It is the irritating compound found in chilies, trace amounts make your mouth feel like it's holding molten iron, and I'm about to inject several cubic centimeters of the stuff into your carotid artery, it'll make your blood taste like hot sauce I imagine, might just have a taste."

Amy couldn't think of anything that could convince Jane not to do this.

Jane nudged the plunger forward enough to warm up Amy's brain slightly.

"That's abouuuuuut…a drop? … I go any further, it could be ages before your system gets it off the nerves lining your cardiovascular system, hours upon hours of pain."

--

Quinn was standing over the sleeping bag when she felt something brush against her side.

She heard a loud yelp and suddenly realized she was now in the corner of the room on the other side of Sandi's bed, looking at a worried looking Sandi just behind where she had once been standing.

She also realized she was breathing hard and that she was straining to keep her eyelids from view.

"Sorry," said Sandi.

Quinn slowly stood up, shaking all over, and said "no biggie," as she mentally cursed her insane reactions loudly and obscenely.

Her therapist had mentioned the possibility of weird and unexpected reactions to everyday stimuli, but this was ridiculous.

If this were to happen while she was at the mall, or somewhere else that was crowded, she would never be able to live it down.

--

"So if you go into that dimension and look for Kaxtra Lorrtobi, he'll make one for you," said Amy.

Jane waited a little, then pulled the syringe from Amy's neck, and headed off to relay the information to the others.

--

"This could add another element to this puzzle, different dimensions have different mystical properties: In some, vampires can stand out in the sun without getting dusted as one example," said Willow.

"Okay, that leads us to another problem: these portals don't always go to the same place," said Wesley.

"The portals from Pylea seemed to repeatedly go to the Caritas, and from what I heard, Angel's car, Lorne's cousin and Cordelia landed within a days walking distance of each other," said Winifred.

"Okay, but that portal's going to be a rough ride, and we need to know how to get back," said Daria.

"This is going to take way too long," said Wesley.

"And I don't entirely trust Amy to tell us how to get back, in fact, she may be planning to get us trapped," said Willow.

"Where's Lorne?" asked Daria.

"Dunno, he went off and said 'don't look for me'."

"We're the NSA, if we want to find him, we could," said Daria.

"Except we don't hate Lorne," said Winifred.

"Hmm… using Illyria's senses, I could function better than a polygraph, but Amy would probably expect us to be unable to verify her statement ahead of when we need the information. In fact, we don't even know that this lead is good," said Daria.

"Which renders the torture earlier worthless," said the other Daria.

"Look, I know where you're coming from, but we have to try," said Daria.

"Really? You know where I'm coming from? So, when did you lose your conscience? Let's re-trace your steps, when was the last time you remember having it?"

"Enough!" said Wesley, bringing the argument to a halt, he then walked up to the other Daria and said, "This is a debate that, fair enough, should bother all involved due to the obscene nature of torture. But, we don't have the time right now, because we need to solve the problem of you two and Illyria being in the wrong bodies and two of you being in the wrong dimensions!

Now, if the use of torture bothers you, you have my deepest sympathies, but I am NOT prepared to resist using it to the point where I can't do my JOB! …so, if you start to get queasy, kindly take it somewhere else, and allow us continue our investigation."

The other Daria fumed. "I don't know weather I hope none of you experience torture, or that you do so you know what it's like," she said before leaving the lab.

She entered a few second later and said "there a place around here I can get something to eat?"

Spike said "I'll show her to the cafeteria, let you brains get on," as he left the lab with the other Daria in tow.

"There's got to be something we can do," said Wesley.

"Hang on…. Willow, you remember when you and Anyanka were trying to locate her pendant?"

"Yeah… hang on… I mean…okay, I guess that could work," said Willow.

"You have come a long way since then Willow," said Wesley.

"And there are still instances where I spectacularly bone the spell," said Willow.

"Okay, but we will need Illyria's help on this, she's had the most experience hopping dimensions of all of us, she will give us the best shot of an accurate transfer, it might also be possible to carry it out without needing Amy," said Daria.

"Okay then, we'll get right on it," said Willow.

--

Trent entered the apartment where Daria was supposed to be living and felt distressed at the appearance of the place.

The place was totally minging, water stains on the walls gave the impression that the roof consisted of a mosquito tent, the floor looked like it had been used as a racetrack for vehicles consisting of clusters of four chainsaws welded together, the personal items of the occupant consisted of some books and legal pads stacked near a beanbag chair, a Kafka poster, a hotplate with cans of soup, an a mattress under a window with a dying Zinnia and a blind with "If misery loves company, misery has company enough."

Even if you knew Daria, that was a worrying statement to hear.

He considered weather he should wait for her to return, or start reading the legal pads to see what she was thinking to try to predict her location.

He decided to call Jane while deciding this.

Trent then heard the door open, he turned and saw Dominic enter. Dominic had two brass knuckledusters.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Why do I get the feeling your search for Daria isn't motivated by your sense of guilt for sending her around the twist?" asked Trent.

"That bitch embarrassed me in front of everyone and just walked off, and if you try to protect her…!"

Trent fumed at Dominic's presence, and his arrogance, and the way he had sent Daria off the edge, and he threw a punch, which Dominic intercepted, he punched Trent square in the nose, sending him back onto his ass.

"Want any more like that, slacker boy?"

Trent wouldn't be able to launch an attack from this position. He knew he would have to draw Dominic in and pull him down.

"Get fucked," said Trent.

Dominic stepped around and went to kick Trent in the side, Trent caught his foot and got up, shoving Dominic back, causing him to wave his arms behind himself in anticipation of his fall.

With the element of surprise on his side, Trent kicked Dominic in his side several times rapidly before bugging out, calling Jane as he left.

"Yo," answered Jane.

"No joy on Daria, just had a very pissed off Dominic show up doing an impression of an ill tempered gorilla looking for her, I think she did something to him when she snapped, and he's out for blood by the supertanker load."

"Okay, I'll get the police on it," said Jane.

"I'll try to get Dominic away from the apartment then I'll return for clues," said Trent.

"Okay," said Jane.

--

A police officer approached Illyria asking "Excuse me, miss, can I have your name please?."

"Illyria," she responded truthfully, but she didn't stop.

"Can you prove your identity?" asked the cop, trying to stay next to her without breaking into a run.

"No," responded Illyria.

"Miss, Illyria, you look like someone we're looking for, a Daria Morgendorffer?"

Illyria stopped and asked "With what is this in connection?"

"Daria is believed to be suffering from a nervous breakdown and may be a danger to herself...is there anyone who can verify your identity?"

"No, there is not," said Illyria, she resumed walking.

The police officer followed her from a distance. He obviously wasn't going to neglect his duty to her and those around her, so she would need to evade him somehow.

--

"So, you're an author and radio personality in your timeline huh?" asked Daria, as she and her other self sat in the cafeteria.

Illyria's eyes were driving her nuts, and if she read one more letter of ancient text, she would have had a seizure, so she went for a cup of tea and found the other Daria right where Spike had left her.

Except her sense of taste was a bit off, the tea tasted foul, even with about fifteen sachets of sugar. In fact, the sugar seemed to make it worse.

"Yeah, well, I was a radio personality, and almost not an author. I was having an argument with my publisher at the time of the switch. I wonder how bad things will be with Illyria filling in for me as me?" asked the other Daria.

"When Illyria infected Stacy's body, and awoke with no idea where she was supposed to be, she kept her presence pretty low key, and she does have a lot of sense. Not much patience, but she knows if she makes a lot of noise, her purposes would not be served or become harder to fulfill. Right now those purposes are returning to this body. I assume there's a police force in your reality too?" said Daria.

"Yes," said the other Daria.

"Illyria won't want them crawling all over her, there is a possible danger that Illyria in searching for the equipment she needs to return to her body, that could generate some assault complaints… that could get awkward."

"Thanks, almost stopped thinking about that for a microsecond," said the other Daria.

"Look, at least when we make contact with Illyria, we can start coordinating with her on damage control."

"Or find out what my brand new rap sheet has on it," said the other Daria.

"They'll figure it out, Wesley and Willow, experienced mystics the pair of them," said Daria.

"Can't we help? I mean, I'm a bookworm in my reality," said the other Daria.

"Trust me, you'd take too long to get up to speed, and I'm a hair away from an epileptic seizure without having to concentrate on large bodies of text."

"I wonder how Illyria is handling her loss of that extra bandwidth?"

--

"The money she used to buy the camera had traces of cocaine on it," said the police officer.

Daria had apparently purchased a camera capable of recording infra red into the 1500nm range and ultra violet into the 50nm range. She had paid for the camera in cash. The police had sent a family liaison officer (Daria was technically a friend, but the same situation the guy was trained for applied), also a police officer had been assaulted by her, using a technique that few martial arts experts knew of, let alone anyone else. The cop was fine, but that did make Daria's arrest more urgent.

"No offence detective, but a lot of bills have traces of weapons grade plutonium on them, although going on what Trent said of her apartment, and her weight. I do find it improbable that she could have that sort of money legally, I don't know what's going on with her, she's kept her situation highly secret. Dominic was after her like she had done something…. She must have humiliated the crap out of him somehow," said Trent.

"Could she have stolen the money or gained the money by selling stolen goods?" asked the cop.

"This isn't going to affect our working assumption that she's lost it and won't be liable for any of this shit, right?" asked Jane.

"This will depend on the facts as we uncover them," said the cop.

--

"There's an APB out on you," said the proprietor of the magic shop.

"I know," said Illyria, as she browsed the containers with both naked eye and the camera's IR/UV modes.

"What's with the camera?"

"This body does not have the ability to see the bands you refer to as infra red and ultra violet. I need to identify the ingredients. I have figured out which dimension I am in, now I need to co-ordinate with those I work with in my base dimension."

"I noticed your aura was a bit wonky, looked like someone used a Draconian Katra on you."

"A Draconian Katra? That switches most humans and demons. My shell would have resisted the magic, the Draconian Katra would have kept trying and the energy discharge would have breeched the dimensions. This explains part of what happened." Illyria pointed out two herbs and a jar of bones.

The proprietor placed the containers on the counter as he asked, "You refer to your original body as a shell, I've never heard anyone do that, what are you?"

"I am a demon god king of the primordium, I have been told that the era is not common knowledge at this time," said Illyria as she pointed out a couple of other containers.

"No, not to me anyway, this sounds like the kind of thing only major organizations might know," said the magic shop proprietor.

Illyria pointed out two more ingredients and said "I wish to perform the spells here; I may need to make adjustments and may be unable to return later."

"Pay for what you use in advance."

--

"Okay, now we need a representation of Illyria's soul," said Willow.

Wesley sighed and said "that could be a problem."

"What about the body we suspect she occupies?" asked Winifred.

"I'll get Daria," said Wesley.

--

'**Daria Illyria receiving over**?' thought Illyria.

'Oh good, auditory hallucinations' thought Daria.

'**I am not a hallucination, I am attempting to locate my base reality, describe your situation to me.'**

'Not listening, … not listening, … not listening' came the distressed reply.

'**Daria, please, it is important.'**

The Daria she had contacted laughed maniacally.

'**What is happening to you?'**

'What is happening to me? Ermm…let's see, first I get done for packing a gun that just materialized in my locker somehow, then I end up accepting a deal that makes prison look like a holiday in the Caribbean.' The Daria laughed again, and said 'want my situation? Okay, I'm in a foam padded coffin with no light, no sound, dressed in a straightjacket, a diaper, and this gag and hood like some sort of bondage gimp, getting diaper rash, dehydrated, and FUCKING SCHIZOPHRENIC, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaa!'

Illyria was getting disturbed now, she had grown increasingly attached to Daria and the others she was working with in the NSA, and it sounded like this Daria was undergoing a sensory deprivation torture of some kind.

'I am sorry for your predicament; I hope your situation improves.'

Illyria then broke contact and told the shopkeeper that she may need to set up a shield while she searched for the correct reality.

--

"Is it likely that Illyria will change my clothes?" asked the other Daria as she and Jane drew her other dimensional self.

"Can't say," said Daria.

"Great, I have to draw me naked," said the other Daria.

--

"This is getting frustrating," said Illyria.

"Maybe we can narrow things down a little, we could perform a locator spell," said the shopkeeper.

"Agreed," said Illyria, she then pointed out a number of other items and started working on her new spell.

--

"Looking a bit gaunt, aren't I?" asked Daria.

"Yeah, due to budget cutbacks, I had to reduce spending on food," said the other Daria.

"Ooo-kay, that everything?" asked Jane.

"Well…some a-hole clocked me pretty hard across the face just before I leaped, so there might be a bruise on my left cheek."

"I'm sure Illyria has avenged that by now," said Jane, as she added the bruise to the picture.

"Okay, that's about it," said the other Daria.

"Right," said Jane, she tore the page from the sketch pad and handed it to Willow, who looked appreciative of the image, before placing it on the floor and starting the spell.

'**Daria Illyria receiving over?'**

"AAAHHH." cried the other Daria.

"What?" asked Daria.

'**Daria, I need you to describe your situation.'**

"I'm hearing thin- … Wait, Illyria?"

"I haven't even done the spell yet," said Willow.

'**Describe your situation.'**

"Okay, well, I'm sitting with a group of people about to do a spell to find you, what's been going on at your end?"

'**I have had to defend myself against a number of people including a police officer; they believe you to be insane,'** thought Illyria.

"Damn it!" said the other Daria.

"What's up?" asked Daria.

"It's just what we thought might happen, I'm gonna end up in a nuthouse for the rest of my life, things are bad enough as it is," said the other Daria.

'**From the condition of your body and the situation as I understand it, you can attribute your seemingly irrational behavior to prolonged distress,'** thought Illyria.

'Illyria Willow receiving, over?'

'**Willow, I believe I know how to switch us back, you will need to prepare my shell.'**

'Okay, our Daria's in there, the Daria you've replaced is in our Daria's body.'

'**A three way rotation? This is going to be a problem. I need time to consider our course of action.'**

'You should hook up directly to me…that will allow us to plan the spell better.'

'**Acknowledged, out.'**

--

"What exactly is the situation?" asked Daria after she had gotten her selves into another room.

"Well… I don't think I want to go into it too much," said the other Daria.

"Daria, we need to figure out the best way to protect you from the penal and mental health systems," said Daria.

"I don't even want to think about that, not again," said the other Daria, visibly distressed.

"Again? What happened?"

The other Daria cringed a lot, producing a cold sick emotion that Daria could barely handle.

"Daria?"

"In my reality, I got into a fight with Quinn at age 4, as kids do, and my parents over reacted, as parents do, took me to a shrink, scared me into Vulcanicity, now I seem to have lost it again, with that bullshit on my medical history. … "

Daria looked at the other Daria, feeling her nausea turn to rage and said "How bad?"

The other Daria looked at her with nearly enough fury to knock Daria off her feet and said "YOU WOULDN'T ASK THAT IF YOU KNEW HOW IT FEELS TO BE TRAPPED AND…!" The other Daria turned around and punched the wall.

"I have been tortured for information…." started Daria.

"Did they break you?" asked the other Daria.

"No, but it still hurt like fuck," said Daria.

"THAT'S NOT THE SAME AS PSYCHIATRIC TORTURE, IF YOU'RE HALF THE BRAIN I AM!" cried the other Daria.

"Believe it or not, I do fear psychiatric abuse more than any other assault. Unlike most thugs, psychiatrists go for the mind, they try to change the very thing that makes you you…. look, maybe there's a way to avoid that possibility all together."

"How?"

--

"Are you quite insane?" asked Willow.

"Yes, can we do it?" asked Daria, not missing a beat.

"We're talking about a complex spell that has way more components than I'm happy with already, Daria, I mean, the more magics you mix, the more likely it is that they will do something unexpected, and that usually means something bad and disastrous," said Willow.

"We're already displacing through time, it's just a case of adjusting one component isn't it?" asked Daria.

"That's just it, we're not, the two universes are chronologically displaced by several years, we'd have to add a part to send your other self back a few hours," said Willow.

"Okay…hang, on, Illyria made contact with us, right?" asked Daria.

"yeah? … Oh, hang on" said Willow 'Illyria Willow receiving, over?'

'**Willow Illyria, go ahead, over.'**

'We're going to want to send the Daria whose body you are presently occupying back through time after we have retrieved you, we're hoping to erase anything that could give her a criminal record or get her committed to a psychiatric hospital, over.'

'**I will make the preparations here and leave instructions for the Daria of this universe, such a spell should be carried out separately to the body swapping spell.'**

'Acknowledged, out.' Willow turned to the others. "Illyria's going to get it ready."

"Okay then."

--

Dominic was walking around fuming.

That Hippy certainly wasn't very peaceful, and Daria had run off somewhere, but she didn't have a lot of money, so she wasn't likely to have gone very far.

She wasn't at Jane's, otherwise what was Trent doing there?

He knew Daria had flipped, that 'Godking of the primordium' thing he thought was a joke, was probably a delusion, so where would a godking of the primordium go?

He glanced and saw a familiar looking woman in a shop window.

"Right," he said, hitting the knuckle dusters together a couple of times as he entered the shop.

Both Daria and the shopkeeper turned to him as he entered.

"Now, Daria, I know you've come down with a case of insanity, so I'm going to help you."

"In what way?" asked Daria, still in 'Seven Of Nine.' mode, her look of curiosity taunted him by it's indication that he wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by him.

"By knocking some sense into you," he said, knocking his knucks together again as he approached.

Daria walked up to him, cocking her head just before he threw a punch. His fist failed to connect with anything, she had dropped from view.

He then felt one of her feet against his abdomen and the other punched him in the throat, forcing him to stumble back. He then felt her calf against his at his second step back, causing him to fall on his ass, his next view of her was of the underside of her foot.

--

"Unimpressive." said Illyria as she walked back to the counter and resumed the preparation of the time travel spell.

"No it wasn't," said the magic shop owner, who was staring slack jawed, holding a micro-Uzi, "That was fucking awesome." He then put the gun away and Illyria re-joined him at the counter.

"We must prepare the time travel spell. I also have some instructions for Daria when she returns regarding the point in time I will send her to."

Illyria also had some instructions for herself as this timeline would remain intact albeit separate from the one she was going to have the Daria from this dimension create.

--

"Okay, we're ready," said Willow.

"Sweet," said Daria.

"So, I get back, I do this spell, and everything goes back to normal?" asked the other Daria.

"Pretty much I guess," said Daria.

"But the guy who attacked me, what do I do?" asked the other Daria.

"I don't know, I don't think we have the time to teach you any moves," said Daria.

"I just checked with Illyria on that, she's aware of this, and will send you to just after she incapacitated Dominic, she recommends you head somewhere where you can impede his access and call the police as he has tried to attack you again with devices that…oh, knuckle dusters."

Daria frowned as the other Daria blushed.

"Why do you think I didn't tell you?" asked the other Daria.

"Because you didn't want to imply that you were weak, but I don't expect all my other selves to be the same, I'd expect some to be…well… anything really," said Daria.

"How did you end up working for the NSA at your age?" asked the other Daria.

"Same way the A-team did in season five," said Daria.

"Oh."

"I was working for the Watcher's Council before that," said Daria.

"The Watcher's Council? What's that, an association of peeping toms?" asked the other Daria.

That made Jane and Spike Chuckle.

"It's an organization set up to manage vampire slayers. Long story, but basically, thousands of years ago, some people decided to stick some demon energy in a girl and set her on the demons that preyed on humanity, primarily that threat came from vampires, hence, these girls were referred to as vampire slayers.

Originally it was just one girl, they wanted to manage the threat from the means by which they wanted to manage the demon threat, that continued until Willow here decided to activate all potential slayers, before then the demon energy jumped from girl to girl to girl as each died."

"Okay, how did you end up working for the watcher's council?" asked the other Daria.

"I helped them find a missing vampire slayer, then helped them free anther ally from a torture centre. In doing so, I committed a number of crimes. I had nowhere else to go, so I decided to work for them under a false identity."

"Sounds like you've had a very interesting life," said the other Daria.

"Yeah, I might just write a book about it… of course I'd have to _shoot_ anyone who read it. … What's the story with you and Dominic then?" asked Daria.

The other Daria sighed and eventually said "it's a long, twisted, complicated story that would make an excellent crappy, made for TV movie."

"And?" asked Daria.

"And that's all I'm saying, the whole thing is just wayyyyyyyyy too embarrassing."

"'kay." said Daria.

"Illyria's ready now." said Willow.

"Okay." said Daria.

They proceeded with the spell.

The first part consisted of ensuring that the only locations the personalities can go are the bodies they belong to.

That part was completed, then Willow took the recharged Draconian Katra and gestured for Daria to approach.

--

Illyria stood over the room full of unconscious people.

Eventually they started waking up.

"Do these body swaps always render people unconscious?" asked Daria.

"No, the unconsciousness is a result of the interaction between the draconian Katra and my shell's mystical shielding," said Illyria.

"How was the other dimension?" asked Daria.

"It was different. Dominic Grayson was of great amusement to me," said Illyria.

"How was I in that other dimension, physically I mean?" asked Daria.

"Scrawny, her body couldn't throw a punch, I had to use her feet to knock out Dominic."

"I hope she'll be all right," said Daria.

Willow felt disgust for some reason.

"It was not her fault," said Illyria.

"What was not her fault?" asked Daria.

"Your counterpart, after breaking off her relationship with Trent Lane, attempted to enhance her career as a writer by entering into an intimate relationship with publisher Dominic Grayson, but he gained control and was maneuvering her into subservience so that he could enslave her. He was very sneaky," said Illyria, sounding like she was amused at the conflict.

"I see," said Daria, looking stoic as usual, but taken aback by the information Illyria had released, some of her emotion was shock, some was anger, some was confusion, some was fear.

"It bothers you that she attempted to barter sex for wealth?" asked Illyria.

"Well … yeah…I'm surprised that would even be an option for me though."

"If it helps, she is ashamed she tried it," said Illyria, finding the concept of such an emotion to be pointless.

"Hang on, how did you come across all this?" asked Jane.

"Willow and I were telepathically linked to her while you were conversing with her," said Illyria.

"Ah," said Jane.

Amy materialized in front of them, now dressed as she had been before capture.

"Willow?" asked Daria.

Willow, ready to attack Amy, said "I leeched her good, she shouldn't be able to do that."

"A friend let me out" said Amy.

"A, fr- … D'Hoffryn?" asked Willow.

"Who?" asked Jane.

Daria thought for a second, noticing the necklace Amy was now wearing, the acorn sized stone on it, and said "Boss of all Vengeance demons, sourced from humans, they are given control of powerful magics capable of altering reality on any scale, but this must be done based on a wish by an angry person that confides in the demon. Amy, you're stupid"

"I'm stupid am I?" asked Amy.

"Yes, extremely, what's the old saying about vengeance seekers? Oh yes, remember to dig two graves--"

"--one for their enemy, one for themselves, heard that, but that's a load of shit." said Amy.

"Is it? What have you given up in order to become a vengeance demon? Little hint: it begins with an F."

"Oh, I'm free to pursue you, I just can't use my powers to alter reality for it unless someone wishes me to take you out, I have to use good old fashioned mortal means to kill you," said Amy.

"In the name of vengeance, I call forth Gwen Walker Velma Smith," said Willow, as she held out some sort of potion.

Another girl appeared in the room, she had demonic attributes and a necklace similar to Amy's.

"Who wishes what?"

"I wish Amy to become severely aphasic whenever someone's wishing her to avenge them," Said Willow.

The girl said "Wish granted" waved her hand and Amy looked at them stunned.

"Will there be anything else?" asked the girl.

"No, that's it thanks" said Willow.

The girl disappeared.

"I looked into D'hoffryn's forces once, identified over 4000 demons," explained Willow.

"Let's test it: I wish Daria had tits like Lolo Ferrari," said Jane.

"Jane?" asked Daria, alarmed.

"What?" asked Amy.

"It worked," said Willow.

"Let's test it again to be sure: I wish Jane has severe Parkinsons disease."

"HEY!" cried Jane.

"Turnabout's fair play." said Daria.

"I can't understand some of that" said Amy.

"Aphasia is where you're unable to understand language of any kind, if you're unable to understand the vengeance wishes, you're not going to be able to do your job," explained Daria.

"I'll get even for this," said Amy as she teleported out.

"She could get demons to listen out for vengeance against us," said Jane.

"She's unlikely to have any influence though, having lost all her ability to score any credit two minutes into the job," said Willow.

"You were intimate with Trent?" asked Jane.

"My other self was intimate with Trent," said Daria.

"Whatever," said Jane.

"Right, that's all over, we need to get back to working on those gangs," said Daria.

"We just lost our only connection to Drusilla though," said Jane.

"I need to return to England, I gotta teach old soldiers new tricks… that statement would have probably made more sense if they were actually old," said Willow. She then left the room, pulling a cell phone to arrange a flight back.

"Right, let's get to work then."

--

Part 5.

--

As Quinn woke up, she opened her eyes, and saw Sandi sitting on top of her. Sandi was being strangled by a pair of hands. What Quinn found odd is that it was her own pair of hands that was strangling Sandi.

Quinn's hands flew away from Sandi's neck. "Sorry."

Sandi collapsed on her, coughing, and Quinn pushed her off as she sat up. "Are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?"

Sandi just about got out a "no, I'll be fine," before she began to cough and taking in gasps of air. "Next time you start screaming, I'm leaving you to it."

"I wasn't screaming. … Was I?"

Sandi looked at her.

"First time I've slept over since the incident. … Nearly smacked Upchuck a couple of times too."

"I thought you were getting help," said Sandi.

"I am, but the doctors told me that the nightmares would take time to fade, and even then they will still occur. … How did Tiffany cope with all of that?"

"She didn't."

Quinn thought about this a moment. "No, she didn't, did she?"

"You should probably visit her," said Sandi.

"That's what my shrink keeps telling me," said Quinn.

"Then you should do it."

"But. … Okay, I'll do it."

--

Daria was checking the weapon for trace evidence that could help her locate the factory.

The machinery and barrel was composed of diamond, the chassis was a polyester resin fiberglass composite.

Daria was shaving slivers off the chassis because the slivers were more likely to have materials that could pin the factory to a location. Winifred was chasing up laser components. The problem with laser components was that the majority of the laser could be built out of commonly available materials. A jerry rigged compressor could evacuate the chamber so that you only got the composition and pressure you want and save on gas you'd otherwise waste purging the chamber of air.

Mirrors were available in all shapes and sizes everywhere, and thinning a mirror's silver sufficiently for the front of the laser wasn't that difficult either. Capacitors could be easily made from bits of foil and paper and oil and wire (and battery top up water if you're making electrolytics), but proper industrial capacitors are preferred. Although a three-phase supply wouldn't need dampening (at least not as badly as single phase).

As for gasses, CO2 would be perfectly suitable and available in any store that does welding gear, or even more CO2 would be available from hardware stores from fire extinguishers, or even soda stream or home brewing kits. Or they could just steal the fire extinguishers, and the barrel in which the gas would be illuminated. This could just be made from ceramic soil pipes, home made concrete tubes, or just bricks. As long as you have enough gas between the mirrors, and the mirrors are parallel to within 1/8th the wavelength (that's the part that takes the most time as you fiddle with the screws on the back mirror), you had yourself a laser.

Daria would also be checking the ammunition's propellant for contaminants, but their best bet was going to be the gangster. Jane and Spike were interrogating him, and he wasn't really loyal enough to them to face Spike and Jane. It was proving useful to be allowed to torture suspects. That was what Daria hated about their jobs, it felt like they were given god-like powers, and she was concerned with addiction. She knew that it had proven useful, but she also knew it was wrong, but she had used it and would probably need to use it again. However, Daria knew the ability (legal or otherwise under circumstances where you're allowed to) to torture is still risky as people will be tempted to misuse that authority, and it was a dangerous habit to get into as it would increasingly become your first resort.

'Like when Illyria had reason to believe I was out to kill her', Daria remembered.

In fact, it was starting to look like they were already there.

They were using it in parallel to other investigative techniques.

And, of course, there was the amount of blackmail ammunition they were handing over to Donald and George to be considered.

"Daria."

Thinking 'speaking of:', Daria glanced back at Donald and asked "what?"

"You wasted a couple of hours trying to retrieve your demon."

"Wasted?"

"You can't possibly think we need her," said Donald.

"She's an expert on the demon era, and on Wolfram and Hart, she's our best hope for victory against them," said Daria, as she thought 'which might explain why you're bitching about her return.'

"We need control over her assets, you would have given us that, but you instead handed it back."

Daria returned to what she was doing. One sliver was going into an MMR scanner, to figure out if there were any unusual compounds, and another sliver was going under a microscope to see if any interesting particles or life forms had gotten trapped in the mould.

"Your freedom is revocable at any time, you know," said Donald.

"I dare you to order Illyria to undergo another body swap."

Donald left the room.

Daria looked at the weapon, sorely tempted to use it on Donald.

Right now they were going after two genuine threats: Rival gangs with the sort of firepower that could equalize the field between the US army and themselves, if they joined forces, or if only one was taken out, they were fucked. They'd be equally fucked if they took out the command and failed to recover all the weapons.

The cyborgs, however, could potentially achieve full spectrum dominance.

--

"Okay, Gangsta boy gave us an address where his chapter usually meet, not all his chapter were involved in the action we picked him up at. There are at least 40 others, so we might be able to get something from them," said Jane.

"I looked for both sales and thefts of parts to make a laser, but there are just too many incidents to, of itself, be of any use. There are about three towns where these parts haven't been sourced within the past year," said Winifred.

"I got plankton trapped in the resin, that suggests a location on the coast where sea spray evaporates mid flight, the plankton ended up landing on the fiberglass while it was being stored unpacked. Also found some tree pollen, that's in DNA right now, might narrow things further, trees not being very mobile and all."

"I've been reviewing the intelligence we managed to gather from the last contact. As you know, we had a satellite over flying the area, and we followed the cyborgs to a location that was concealed by cumulus at about four angels, so we know where they landed. That area is under intensive surveillance now," said Wesley.

"Hang on, four angels?" asked Spike.

"Four thousand feet altitude, hundreds of feet are cherubs," said Daria.

" … Right," said Spike.

"I'm getting better at location spells, I'll use it to try to locate the tree the pollen came from," said Daria.

"Just a pity we can't seem to use the spells to locate Drusilla," said Wesley.

--

Robodaria operated all 12 of the UAVs simultaneously. The hydrogen cell powered airplanes, wingspan of 40cm, weaved between the trees, scanning for anything that could indicate something was hiding in them.

Meanwhile, a geophysics team was running sonar scans of the terrain for concealed structures.

She received a phonecall from one of them: "Yo, robo, we got a large underground structure under this farmhouse."

--

Daria drove up the driveway with Jane in her front passenger seat and four slayers in the back, the weather was going to remain overcast for the next couple of hours.

They met with Robodaria and a Delta team, which were equipped with M4s.

"Daria, this is Colonel Conrad Mayborne, he'll be killing the bad guys and making it safe for us to enter," said Robodaria.

"Colonel," acknowledged Daria, as she pulled her USAS 12, Jane was strapping on her flamethrower, the slayers were grabbing war hammers and tai chi swords.

"You don't think you're breeching with us, do you?" asked the colonel.

"'Course not," said Daria.

"Good," he said.

"It just seemed sensible to be prepared for the unexpected," said Daria.

"Not much faith in plan A then?" asked Jane as she prepared her flamethrower.

"Since when has plan A ever worked?" asked Daria.

"Good point," said Jane.

"We ready to go then?" asked Daria.

"Going in now," said the colonel, he signaled for his troop to head off to their assigned start positions.

The Delta team had dressed in thermally insulating bodysuits in order to contain their energy signature and were camouflaged with standard DPM plus mirrors and locally sourced foliage. Their weapons had thermo graphic sights, they approached using cover formations, more Deltas where approaching from the other side.

The Deltas got to the house, and some of them slung their M4s for SPAS 12s loaded with door breeching ammo. On cue, the ones with shotguns shot the locks and hinges off the doors and the other Deltas stormed through.

They were firing shots.

There was no radio traffic, the only way Daria knew that the operation had been completed was when the Colonel emerged and waved them up.

Daria wasn't convinced he hadn't been killed and his gear stolen, so she unslung her USAS 12 and rested it against her trigger side's shoulder, ready to drop the muzzle to shoot him the instant he raised his weapon to her.

She got to him and he said "we didn't find your cyborgs, but we did find something you might consider worth a look." He then showed her in.

They went through the house, stepping over dead bodies finding the entrance to the underground structure in the basement, disguised as a brick wall (using actual bricks, it was hinged on massive steel beams).

When they entered the basement, they found another door which led to a space that included another block immediately to the left, and a main area straight ahead that was filled with torture equipment. There were a couple of mostly naked men (dressed in leather shorts and harnesses) being held by a couple of the Deltas and three barely teenaged girls looking zoned out, dressed in blankets and, Daria guessed, nothing underneath. There was one man dressed in casual attire holding a camera lying dead on the floor from having a hole being blown through his head at about mouth level.

"No terrorists, just a bunch of child molesters."

"This was the only suspicious structure in the area." said Robodaria.

"What's in there?" asked Daria nodding towards the block.

There was a door leading to the block, some noises from it indicated that something made of steel was being broken into, and several seconds later, more girls in their teens were led out wrapped in blankets.

"Okay, I'm gonna call in the feds, this is their territory," said Daria.

--

"Donald, how's life treating you?" asked Barry Carter.

Donald sat down beside him at the bar and ordered a vodka saying "all right except that bitch Daria can't seem to learn to just obey orders. In fact, that entire group are starting to piss me off."

"Ouch, that sounds bad," said Barry.

"She rescued Illyria when Illyria had body swapped with someone in another dimension, I just don't understand that," said Donald.

"Illyria, not a favorite person at Wolfram and Hart either," said Barry.

"Is there anything you can do? Just if I try anything, it'll lead back to me," said Donald.

"Bring me a sample of her DNA, and I'll find something, you won't have to do a thing," said Barry.

--

Daria, Jane, Winifred, Wesley, Robodaria and Spike met up in the library.

"Illyria's reported that she's located Drusilla and is awaiting our assistance in apprehending her, she's also given us the locations of a couple of known magazines and the factories, I'll start putting forces into place soon, how goes the search for our cyborgs?" asked Daria.

"No joy, there's no way they could have continued on un noticed," said Winifred.

"Did they land and hitch a ride?" asked Daria.

"No traffic left the area while we were watching, they could have ran," said Winifred.

"We did check for mystical signatures, right?" asked Jane.

"Yes, nothing," said Wesley.

"Could they have hidden anywhere?" asked Daria.

"There were plenty of sheds, barns, but we checked them all after we raided that dungeon, and had a ring of surveillance watching for them the whole time," said Robodaria.

"Either they're still there, or they're long gone, I don't think they can know they are being watched," said Robodaria.

"Okay, that case, I'll look at the drugs that were recovered. If we can find out what part of the world they hail from, we can possibly find out how that gang is getting their hands on them," said Daria, looking concerned.

"What's with the look amiga?" asked Jane.

"Well … something strikes me as wrong here, why land at all if they aren't based out of that area?" asked Daria.

"Fuel?" asked Jane.

"They've been flying long enough, they should know their fuel limits and have prepared refills at appropriate locations. But they're using some kind of plasma thruster if they're fusion electric, that should have left evidence of them taking off again," said Daria.

"I found no such evidence on the aerial footage of the area," said Robodaria.

"Had to be air plasma they were using, those X-ray cannons wouldn't have accounted for the amount of nitrates Spike got bathed in," said Jane.

"I could go back and conduct a more thorough search of the area, the UAVs I used in the forest were equipped with chemical sensors. The forest was clear of nitrates, but if they landed anywhere, there will be elevated traces," said Robodaria.

"I think we need to consider the possibility that they never landed," said Wesley.

"They got picked up by an aircraft?" asked Daria.

"Possibly, but what kind?" asked Wesley.

"Obviously a stealth, it would have to be quiet and nearly invisible with no thermal energy signature," said Daria.

"It's almost impossible to have a silent aircraft -- even blimps need propulsion," said Winifred.

"That cloud cover was at 4000 ft, that could … hang on … " Daria went to a computer and loaded the footage of the cloud the cyborgs had disappeared to.

"I think I see what you mean," said Robodaria.

"You're not saying that cloud was artificial, are you?" asked Wesley.

"The cloud wasn't part of any existing thermal, it just appeared there," said Robodaria.

"Take a lot of energy to vaporize that much water," said Winifred.

"What if they just burn off a load of liquid hydrogen?" asked Daria.

"Wouldn't that cause an energy signature?" asked Jane.

"It can be reduced, if the burner is exhausted through a liquid hydrogen filled radiator," said Daria.

"How did that cloud form?" asked Winifred.

"It just appeared as a normal cumulus at 4000 ft," said Robodaria.

"No spiral, or criss-cross action, nothing?" asked Winifred.

"No … it's like a load of water vapor just appeared there," said Robodaria.

"Did it appear too fast for it to have been from any kind of burner system?" asked Daria.

"The system would have been unwieldy," said Robodaria.

"Okay, that leaves magic, or, they dropped the liquid hydrogen the same way fire fighting planes drop water," said Daria.

"That much liquid hydrogen per sale would eat into the profits quite badly," said Winifred.

"They got fusion reactors, they could make tons of hydrogen for free," said Daria.

"And the aircraft could be electric, that would affect noise, wouldn't it?" asked Jane.

"Provided any moving parts stay subsonic," said Winifred.

"If they're using a ducted fan, they could build a system that absorbs most the noise," said Daria.

"We'll need more information, how do we get it?" asked Wesley.

"Y'know, Dru's gang seemed to know where they were last time, as did the DEA," said Daria.

"That's not guaranteed, but I don't think there will be a problem," said Wesley.

"Y'know, there may be a way to speed things up," said Daria.

--

After several hours of surfing Aviation and UFO forums, Daria typed up her entirely fruitless report and got up to leave.

"Any progress yet?" asked Donald as he emerged from his hiding place.

"None," Daria said as she headed out.

"Then why are you leaving?" asked Donald, acting like Daria was taking a liberty.

"Because, I try to continue like this, I could miss vital clues," said Daria.

"How very responsible," said Donald.

"So, lurking, how's that working out for you?" asked Daria.

"You think I do nothing but lurk?" asked Donald.

"No, sometimes you make veiled threats or attempt to look all important, g'night," said Daria as she left.

She passed Wesley at the door and asked "How's it going?"

"Not really that good, I've been looking at my list of forums for hours, but found nothing."

Wesley's speech seemed wrong somehow.

"What?" asked Wesley.

"You sound different," said Daria.

"Oh, thaaaat, just … … "

"Fred?" asked Daria.

Wesley's head nodded, and said "Couldn't resist."

"Right," Daria said, she eventually pointed at the body and asked "How is it?"

"It's good," said Winifred.

Daria looked like she wanted to say something.

"You know you want to," said Winifred.

"Have fun fucking yourself?" asked Daria.

"Lots," said Winifred.

"Okay, good night," said Daria as she headed off.

--

Quinn came up at the door to the room Tiffany had been given. She took a breath, and then stepped forward, glancing in. Tiffany was reading a really heavy book on cults.

Quinn knocked on the door and Tiffany looked at her.

"Um. … hi," said Tiffany.

"Mind if I come in?"

"No" said Tiffany, she resumed her reading.

Quinn sat next to Tiffany and said "I. … Wasn't particularly understanding when you. … "

"Raped you?" asked Tiffany.

"Yes," said Quinn, she then continued saying "Anyway, I'm sorry for avoiding you, it's not like it was your fault or anything."

"Yes it was," said Tiffany.

"No, the First Evil-" said Quinn.

"Egged me on. The me that was in that room, that was just a front the First Evil hypnotized into me while I waited for the perfect opportunity. It's exactly the same thing I did to Daria when I was chasing Jane, I wanted someone to find out what it's like to be hurt in such a manner, I wanted to hurt you, I enjoyed hurting you. I enjoyed biting through your neck, I enjoyed sucking the blood out through your wounds, I enjoyed the look on your face when I stripped you, I enjoyed stabbing you in your vagina, that look on your face and the noise you made when you felt your vaginal and anal sphincter muscles tear got me high. That was me, Quinn."

Quinn didn't need to be reminded of what Tiffany had done to her, she remembered the pain and fear she had felt, the anger at her rapists, and at the fact she hadn't been able to do a damn thing to them.

And the anger at the betrayal she had felt of Tiffany, when it had occurred to her that it was Tiffany's mind that was doing that to her.

That was something she had been working on since the incident, Quinn had been encouraged to find stuff to do that she liked (NOT involving vengeance) to give her somewhere safe to go most of the time, while she only dealt with what had happened in Tiffany's mind during therapy.

But it seemed like Tiffany had done the reverse, Quinn looked at the book Tiffany was reading, and then looked around seeing more books on hypnosis, and on specific cults and psi-ops.

"Enjoying that?" asked Quinn.

"Not really."

"Is there anything you do enjoy?" asked Quinn.

"Yeah, hittin' stuff, they let me use the gym for that."

"Yeah, I sometimes need to do that too."

"You think about taking up an unarmed combat course of some kind?" asked Tiffany.

"Well. … yeah, actually, especially since that incident where Sandi and I went vampire hunting."

Tiffany looked up at Quinn.

"We didn't do too well, we couldn't get the arrows to penetrate the vampires hearts."

"What kind of bow did you use?"

"Err… a pink one."

"Draw strength?" asked Tiffany.

Quinn waved a hand and made to say something, then aborted.

"You generally need a draw strength of around 250N, us slayers use around 700N for good measure. Keep in mind that the target is protected by a ribcage, you may even need to go through the sternum," said Tiffany.

"Oh… didn't think of that."

"No, probably went for the bows that matched your outfits," said Tiffany.

"Well, duh! What did you think we'd do?"

"Have the sense not to go looking for vampires to kill you,"

Quinn was infuriated by this attitude. "Tiffany, come on, I wanted to get to know your world a little better."

Tiffany gave Quinn such a condescending look, one that included contempt by the ton, and said "You're not a vampire slayer Quinn, stay off the battlefield."

Quinn eventually said "fine, don't forget to cut yourself extra deep," before getting up and leaving.

Quinn regretted saying that about 20s out, she stopped and considered returning, but she didn't trust herself to quietly sit through any more verbal abuse.

In fact, her patience had been extra short ever since the mind rape, it wasn't just the panic attacks that were wearing her down, for some reason everything took way more effort than she remembered.

God this was infuriating.

--

Willow got that cold feeling again when she got the submachine gun from the quartermaster.

After several hours working with M16s, they had moved onto the MP5. She removed the clip and pulled the cocking handle back, locking the bolt back, she took a few seconds to look at the bullets in the clip.

So far it had been this type of ammunition that had been killing her girlfriends.

She decided to resume her trance later, taking the magazine pouch and heading off to the range with the other slayers.

It hadn't been that much fun, every time a target popped up, she was supposed to shoot it immediately -- the idea was to compress target acquisition into as short a time as possible, shoot them first before they can shoot you. That is, when the targets are similarly armed enemies instead of mild steel cut-outs.

There was a lesson scheduled where they would use the 'killing house', a house with a load of targets dotted around it, that was going to be live fire (in such a confined space, that didn't strike Willow as being particularly safe). Rebecca had also mentioned times when they'd conduct the exercise with real people standing amongst the targets, that seemed even more insane. But the SAS needed to be comfortable with firing in such circumstances.

--

"What?" asked Sandi.

"Yeah, I know, not what she needed, but… Okay, she was right that we're not combat qualified, but she didn't have to get all snotty about it!" said Quinn.

"Whenever I visit her, she's been calm and courteous, but sullen."

"What do you normally talk about?"

"The world of fashion."

"Her safe place," said Quinn.

"What?" asked Sandi.

"Same time that we're supposed to work through what happened, we're also supposed to have a distraction the rest of the time so that we don't spend all our time thinking about what happened. Otherwise, we'd just be sitting around getting steadily more hateful of the injustice of it all."

"Oh. … Sounds like Tiffany was doing that before she got her head jump started."

"She said she enjoyed what she did to me."

That left Sandi unable to respond.

"She actually said she enjoyed what she did to me. I mean, she didn't even try to apologize about it, she just went and said it."

Sandi just stared at a spot on the wall behind Quinn, saying "I can't believe she would be that callous -- isn't she supposed to be a good guy?"

"I don't think she cares any more."

--

"Rosenberg, that's just taking the piss now; you can't still be having trouble with your aim surely!" shouted Henno.

"But I am, and don't call me Shirley," said Willow, as she made her weapon safe.

"You will see me after class, Willow," said Henno, he then went about dismissing the rest of the class.

--

"I think I can guess what this is about, but humor me: what's going on?" asked Henno when Rebecca closed the door behind them.

"Are you aware I was projecting into Kennedy when your subordinate shot her?" asked Willow.

"No, All I knew was that the two of you were romantically involved" said Henno.

"When you project into someone, you enter what could be accurately described as a mind meld. I saw and felt everything she saw and felt, heard her thoughts, she heard mine… her last thought was the word 'Eep' in case you were curious," said Willow.

"So you saw and felt her getting the back of her skull pierced," commented Henno.

"By that exact model," added Rebecca, with a wince.

"Right, well, your primary role is to oversee the training, you don't need to participate, but I would prefer it if you could get over it," said Henno.

Willow scowled.

"I don't do warm and fuzzy, I don't do apologies, my expertise is the battlefield. We do have shrinks if you need someone to help you with this, my opinion is that nothing cures phobias better than acclimatization, you can spend more time on the range if you choose to," said Henno.

"That's appreciated," said Willow.

"Good, dismissed," said Henno.

Willow saluted (unnecessarily given that she wasn't in the military per se, but) and left.

"Rebecca, do you think she's a threat?" asked Henno.

"Possibly, Sarge, she's definitely having difficulty holding it all in," said Rebecca.

"Keep an eye on her, if you feel she's about to become a danger, I want her out of the class immediately," said Henno.

"Sarge," acknowledged Rebecca, as she stepped out.

--

Willow kept shooting off round after round on single shot.

It was odd that she didn't have as much of a problem with the M16, it's not like they were that different, but for some reason it was the MP5 that put her on edge.

"This is stupid, it's just another gun, why do I have this phobia that's so fixated on it?" she asked aloud.

She changed the clip.

She was wired most of the class and her continued session, this being the reason she couldn't hit her own target with more than 2 out of 30 shots, now she was extremely tired.

She cocked the weapon.

She looked at it, turning it around in her hands.

She turned it so she was looking backwards through the sights, holding it by the bottoms of the magazine and the pistol grip.

She adjusted the location and attitude of the weapon to that which she had seen through Kennedy's eyes just before. …

It happened again, she was reminded of the intense ice cream headache she had felt when Kennedy was killed, the way her consciousness faded a fraction of a second later.

Willow had experienced death.

Her girlfriends death.

This had been way too much of a shock for her to even contemplate anger, let alone vengeance. All she could do was stare at this Kennedy shaped hole in her life for several minutes.

She had just erected a shield and curled up on the floor to wait out the cold feeling, nausea, and loss of equilibrium.

There had been a number of collective funerals for all the military and Watchers Council personal that had died in this conflict, but there was no news coverage of this, and their names wouldn't be written onto any cenotaph or other collective memorial plaque.

Even the CIA had a memorial plaque in it's main building.

The shock had delayed any ideas of vengeance, but what she did after Tara's death had kept her from going on any vengeance trips:

Killing Warren hadn't sated her. She had then moved onto Andrew and Jonathon: Neither of those two could be described as hardened criminals. Except Andrew, but he regretted killing Jonathon the same way she regretted killing Warren.

Willow was definitely doing better than last time, that gave her a feeling of pride, but she still wanted Kennedy to be alive again.

Willow removed the magazine and discharged the chambered round at the target. Then, locking the bolt open, she returned the weapon to the quartermaster.

--

Daria headed home.

She had an apartment close to the NSA branch she worked at. She could make Lawndale if she wanted to, but it was a bit far for her, so she instead used this apartment most of the time.

She remembered her mother's funeral.

It had been a mass funeral, the amount of Lawndale that got flattened it was hardly surprising so many people had died, either from having a building fall on them, from having their faces burned off while they were driving home, from being blinded and then their homes set on fire.

She only occasionally returned to Lawndale, not only due to the amount of her time spent at the NSA, but also because she hated seeing the place like that, and being reminded of her mother's death.

That was kind of pathetic, people die everywhere all the time; she shouldn't be that put off by Lawndale just because her mother died there.

There was more though.

A lot of the houses on her home street were wooden, and hadn't fared that well (Morgendorffer house was brick, it survived mostly intact), the carpets and furniture that had been exposed to the light had been bleached. Add to that the replacement TV, DVD/VHS player, various sound systems, because the stuff they had before had all been jacked due to there being no windows after the blast hit.

This was one of the few places that had stood up enough for people to be able to access the goods (as opposed to having to fish them out of a pile of rubble), and the smell of half digested food that they could never seem to adequately clean that Jake had sprayed about the place when he got absolutely shitfaced a week or so after the incident.

Jake wasn't holding things together too well.

Jake had been well protected in his office which was made mostly of steel reinforced concrete and the window of the room he was in were facing away from the hypocenter. He had described what had happened from his point of view. His computer had conked out and at the same time the outside had gotten extremely bright, he had gone to the window and realized that there was an extremely powerful light source somewhere behind him, the light slowly faded and the source was ascending, he had realized that he was seeing the effects of a nuclear explosion, and had just made it under the desk before the blast wave hit.

The windows on the other side of the building had blown in, but the doors between there and his office were all closed, then the rarefaction that sucked everything back had cracked the windows on his side. He had then tried to call Helen, but there was no dialing tone and he realized that the EMP had taken out the phone lines.

It had taken a while for the phones to come back on line. The payphones in the street, by accident of the fact they needed to be vandal proofed, it got armored with enough steel to deflect most of the energy -- steel wasn't best for this, but it made the difference beyond a certain radius.

Jake based his decision to hang about or leave on which way the cloud drifted, which was the other way, so he decided to try to locate Helen and Quinn.

After hours of driving, he started calling the police.

He found Helen himself. Her car had been blown off the road and got squished by a huge truck that hadn't been affected. Its driver had been blinded and for some reason, hadn't stopped.

He had called it in, and then resumed his search.

He had later heard that both his daughters had been seen stealing a police APC that had probably been in the fireball radius of the explosion.

Basically, not hearing anything from Daria and Quinn over the amount of time it took for them to get around to talking to him hadn't been good for him, wondering if they were dead this whole time, drove him nuts. … nuts-er. … when Daria and Quinn had returned, he was too relieved to do anything other than hug the pair of them for about an hour.

Quinn couldn't tell Jake what had happened to her, the fact that the government was trying to classify all this top secret. That helped Quinn and Jake to a certain extent, because explaining the mystical would have caused Jake the distress of wondering weather Quinn was lying or delusional, and Quinn the distress of having Jake analyzing her instead of supporting her.

Quinn had talked with Daria about this at the same time she was seeing her shrink about the PTSD. … That reminded her, Quinn had mentioned that the Shrink wanted her to see Tiffany.

Daria didn't know what to advise Quinn to do, but had said "only if you think you can handle it."

Daria had no way to advise Quinn on this, because she wasn't a qualified psychologist, she wondered if she had given Quinn good advice, or scared her off. Or made her seek an encounter she was unprepared for, or what.

She had been avoiding any serious contact with her family for a while now, focusing almost exclusively on Tiffany, trying to get her ready to return to active duty.

Tiffany was, understandably, mortally embarrassed. After the first shrink had jump started her brain, the First Evil had essentially distilled her emotions into two separate personae. One was not aware of her life as a slayer, she thought she was a normal teen girl who hallucinated a lead role in a monster hunter movie. The other persona somewhat resembled Dana, that vampire slayer that escaped that Los Angeles nut house, that had been retrieved by a team of slayers led by Andrew. Twisted with rage into someone who was unable to express her rage in any way other than to put someone else through it, so she would have someone who understands.

Of course evil Tiffany couldn't think of a way to make it happen, and wouldn't interact until she could. Amanda gave her the means, except evil Tiffany didn't want Daria, she had blown it with her, she wanted Quinn. When they had come to the inevitable conclusion that Quinn would be needed for this, evil Tiffany took over Amanda and used her magic to keep everyone stuck.

She hadn't bothered trapping Willow too; Amanda was taking up all her attention not focused on torturing Quinn and her other personality.

What had interrupted Tiffany's plans was the carbon dioxide that had built up within the spatial shield. She had difficulty isolating her personae. And ultimately her hold on Amanda. When her personae had reunited, her sense of shame at what she had done to Quinn and the memory of the pleasure she had felt at doing this to Quinn. … Daria knew if it were her, she'd feel like she was at the bottom of a well that was deep enough to stop daylight reaching her even if it were pointed straight at the sun.

Thinking about it, it was amazing that Tiffany had been able to function at all. She had gone through weeks of that torture, and she had no way to access help with the mental trauma, she had no way to contact the Watcher's council, so no way to request help or orders, all she could do was cope as best she could.

She also couldn't tell her friends about this, they'd drop her like a plaid burqa, so she pretended it was something fairly mundane. When she felt that she was having trouble holding it all in. She obtained some pretty fancy medication, managing to purchase it in secret, while playing miss normality with her friends, and training for her night job in case she got activated.

That had gone pretty well until Jane was turned, and Tiffany got a spike every time she walked past her.

It took a while for Tiffany to work out which of them was the vampire. She eventually made her move, but Jane, in spite of having no formal combat training, had managed to defend herself and evade Tiffany.

Then when Daria had helped Jane escape again, that had been too much. Tiffany wanted Daria to understand what Jane had become (not knowing at the time that Jane had a soul) and that she was not worth protecting. She had then gotten carried away when she started interrogating Daria (Plus, being an active Slayer and having Daria pull that move on her was annoying), it became more about hurting those who didn't understand (this was stuff Tiffany had told Daria about during her visits). Tiffany might not have done this had she not been doped to the eyeballs, the whole point of that medication had been defeated, so she immediately stopped.

Then she had staked a couple of zombies, and thought she had accidentally staked a couple of innocent bystanders, that hadn't done much for her self confidence, but she came back from that (Well, Willow brought her back, Tiffany had run off when Sandi and Quinn had said something about turning her in), the girl was getting seriously eroded by these rare, but seemingly unending fuck-ups.

It wouldn't surprise Daria if Tiffany no longer had it in her to continue as a vampire slayer.

Well, there was no reason Tiffany couldn't retire, it wasn't like there was just one, or two active slayers on the entire planet, except they were now working for the NSA in order to keep out of jail, so Tiffany would need to do something for them.

That was something she would have to explore with personal, the important thing was to find something for Tiffany to do that would get her out of that fucking hospital she was hiding in.

--

"Hey Quinn," said Daria, as she entered reception.

"Hi," said Quinn.

"What brings you here?" asked Daria.

"A sense of guilt."

"How's that?"

"Well. … I visited Tiffany yesterday, I meant to see if I could help her, and then she said something mean to me, and I said something mean back, and I didn't mean to say something that mean, and I was going to go back and apologize, but I was afraid I'd do it again, and make things worse, and. … I hope she didn't do anything to herself. … "

Daria looked at Quinn, and eventually said "The first meeting after something like what you two went through is always going to be a tap dance across a minefield. The only way to get over what you two are feeling towards each other is to interact, let the insults get lame. I'm concerned I may have interfered with that by telling you to wait until you're ready," said Daria.

"Right," said Quinn, a couple of seconds later, she said "So you're not mad at me?"

" … No," said Daria, she then waved at the door into the hospital, and they headed in.

--

"You're back are you?" asked Tiffany.

"Sorry I blew up at you yesterday," said Quinn.

"Don't be, because I wasn't kidding about any of what I said," said Tiffany.

"Tiffany, I can't believe you actually meant what you said," said Quinn.

"Well, believe it, it's true," said Tiffany.

"Hold up, stop a minute, what's true?" asked Daria.

Tiffany looked awkward for a few seconds and eventually said "I enjoyed raping your sister, and you know what? I want to do it again."

"I see," said Daria.

Quinn eventually asked "What did I ever do to you?"

Tiffany looked at her and said "I wanted you to understand what it's like to go through that, I mean, you're my friend, and I couldn't share any of this with you, it would not have meant anything to you."

Quinn stood up and shouted "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? ALL YOU DID WAS TURN ME AGAINST YOU!"

"I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE LOST ON YOU, OKAY? I NEEDED SOMEONE CLOSE TO ME WHO UNDERSTOOD WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!" replied Tiffany.

Daria raised her hand and said "I got tortured by both you and Illyria, that fucked me up plenty for a while."

"I forgot," said Tiffany.

"You forgot hurting my sister?" asked Quinn, still annoyed.

"I forgot everything, I woke up strapped to a bed with no memory of anything, including my entire childhood," said Tiffany.

"Do you recall doing anything that could have caused you to become incarcerated in that hospital where you lost your memory?" asked Daria.

Tiffany thought about it and eventually said "odd hours, evidence of combat, disappearing for a few weeks, odd reactions to every day combat, unusual sensitivity to certain topics of conversation, talking like a stoner; what didn't I do?"

"Could any of that have been avoided?" asked Daria.

Tiffany thought and said "Possibly, but it's difficult enough to wage this secret war without having to assess every operation for my ability to prevent the generation of evidence. … Is there anything I can do to avoid hurting people?"

"Well, hiding out in here will avoid accidents, but what does it cost you?" asked Daria.

"Well. … I don't even know if I want to be a slayer any more. I'm sorry, but this last fuck up really got to me," said Tiffany.

"Okay, I understand that, but I would prefer you finding something to do that isn't sitting around lamenting on past mistakes, it isn't healthy," said Daria.

"Daria, were you even paying attention back there? I got off on hurting Quinn," said Tiffany.

"After you got brainwashed by the First Evil, Tiffany, you got rebooted and re-programmed. I'm a brain and I don't think I could have done any better, I wasn't too picky about who I attacked after I was tortured." She glanced at Quinn.

Quinn realized where this was going and said "I remember. … I also remember how I reacted to what you did Tiffany, the rage just takes control. You have to fight that if you don't want to hurt someone."

"We all know what we're talking about here, you don't have to become a slayer again, but for fucks sake, find something to do," said Daria.

"Right," said Tiffany.

--

"I'm actually less mad at Tiffany now," said Quinn, as they drove off to the Morgendorffer home.

"Good, I just hope she can stop being mad at herself now," said Daria.

"Yeah."

Daria's phone rang, she activated the phone in it's charger and said "Y'ello?"

"You're close to New York right now, get over to Queens hospital, Detectives John Munch and Odafin Tutuola have sustained injuries consistent with the weapons those cyborgs are using," said Donald.

"Right," said Daria, she turned the phone off and said "I'll have to really move on this. Sandi's is closer, you mind if I drop you there and you make your way home from there?"

"Sure," said Quinn, looking down.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to clear the time for a proper day off, but those cyborgs he mentioned--" started Daria.

"Yeah, I get it, I'll get over it, I'll be fine."

"I'll see about making some time for us, I will," said Daria, knowing that she won't sound credible until she actually follows through.

--

Daria approached the cubicle and was met by a bald man who asked "Who are you?"

"Special Agent Daria Morgendorffer, National security," Daria said, showing her ID to him.

"I'm Captain Donald Cragen of New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit," he responded, he then asked "What makes this case of interest to you?"

"I was told two officers sustained injuries that match those known to be caused by directed radiation weapons, specifically a hole where flesh got vaporized, possibly surrounded by severe radiation burns?" said Daria.

"Yeah, it felt like half mil primacord exploding along the line," said one of the patients, a black man with a goatee whose hair was tied back in a ponytail, he waved Daria over saying "I'm detective Odafin Tutuola, my partner over there--" he indicated a man with glasses and graying black hair, who half waved at her "--is Detective John Munch."

"Pleased to meet you," said Daria, she then asked "what do you remember of the attack?"

"It happened as we were leaving a slave auction. We were gathering video evidence using cameras disguised as clip-on ties. Once the sale was ended, I activated the beacon which was disguised as a pen, but nothing happened, but we got out okay, right up to the point where we started taking fire from something."

"Did you see what that something was?" asked Daria.

Munch continued the story, saying "The origin of the beams appeared to be on top of a building, I got us around a corner and floored it out of there, but the shots started coming through the buildings at us, I kept going we were in a tunnel, I checked the beacon, it was hit."

Daria figured it was the beacon they were homing in on, she asked "What happened to your support?"

"Their vans were found burnt out with bodies inside tallying the missing officers, I'm not betting against the bodies being the officers" said Captain Cragen.

"Can I see the footage from the tie cameras?" asked Daria.

--

Wesley (in Winifred's body) answered the phone.

"Daria here, were you told about the incident in New York?"

"Yes I have, what's the situation?"

"Seems the cyborgs or someone using similar weapons intercepted a number of uniformed officers that were going to raid a slave auction, and shot up two that were gathering video evidence in anticipation of the raid," said Daria.

"I see, was this video evidence recovered?" asked Wesley.

"Yeah, I'm looking through it now, that should give us a list of suspects to work with," said Daria.

"Good, maybe we'll get lucky this time, you know, if we can recover the slaves themselves, we might be able to find out more about the gang," said Wesley.

"Yeah, I was thinking that, none of these guys were really identifiable though. … … except this guy. … yeah, that's him."

"Who?"

"Charles Ruttheimer the third, Lawndale born dickhead, makes Austin Powers look smooth. He's bought at least one girl, maybe more. I'll get back to you, I'll also have him picked up for questioning," said Daria.

"Okay, good luck," said Wesley.

--

All roads lead to Lawndale for some reason.

Daria wasn't really that surprised that Upchuck would need slaves, although she had heard from Quinn he had managed to pull Andrea.

The question was, why was he buying so many? Was he a pimp? A slave retailer? What?

She then saw a bright dot in the distance.

It flew from her 11o'clock position to her 4 o'clock position, it got close enough for her to make out a humanish shape and a weird set of wings.

"Shit!" she activated the phone and called NORAD.

"Admiral Keating speaking"

"This is special agent Daria Morgendorffer, I just saw one of those flying cyborgs departing Lawndale heading 115°-" she heard a loud pop and continued "-supersonic, five cherubs off the deck, do you have it?"

"Standby. … … Yeah, we have your bogey, it's really moving, seems to be going for the coast. Do you have any information on it's fighting capabilities, over?"

"Yeah, it has X-ray cannons, seems to have an excellent sensor grid, avoid engagement if possible, right now we don't have a means to do anything to them"

"Acknowledged" replied the Admiral.

"I need to call the Lawndale police department and find out if anything was attacked now," said Daria.

"Understood," said the admiral.

Daria then disconnected and called the police station.

"Superintendent McFright"

"Special Agent Daria Morgendorffer here, I called earlier for you to pull in a Charles Ruttheimer the 3rd, I just saw one of those cyborgs flying away from Lawndale, do you have anything to report?"

"Yeah, we served a warrant at the Ruttheimer residence. Ruttheimer the 3rd was out, we're still searching his place for the slaves, but we're coming up with nothing," said the superintendent.

"Right. … Excuse me a minute,"

Daria called Winifred (Who was still in Wesley's body, Daria wondered if they would ever return to their own bodies).

"Fred here."

"Hi, Daria here, Are there any anagrams of Charles Ruttheimer being used to purchase or rent anything in the Lawndale area?"

"Hang on."

Daria waited, wondering what Upchuck would do to get storage for his purchases.

"Cirra Sue Mettre has a storage locker in the warehouse district," said Winifred.

"Right, could you call superintendent McFright and let him know?"

"Sure," said Winifred.

Daria hung up.

About 5 minutes later, she got another call.

--

"This is the bike," said the officer.

"At least he left it looking cool," said Daria.

"Where would he go though? Bike doesn't look like it's been jacked, and he was last seen using it," said the cop watching the scene.

Daria stepped back and surveyed the scene. The bike was parked in a really strange location, between a couple of trash cans, one of which was turned over.

She looked at the one that was turned over, and looked again at the bike. There was a faint line of dried crap on the seat that curved at the same radius as the bin. The wall the bike was parked against was the back of a restaurant, which had a flat roof.

She picked up the bin and it's lid and used it on the bike to get up on the roof, which, aside from a large air conditioning plant, a hatch and a sky light, was completely barren.

"Err, Agent Morgendorffer. … are you allowed to do that?" asked one of the cops.

"Yes. … yes I am," she said, as she looked around the roof.

Maybe he had kept something here, or met someone here, but if that was so, why leave the bike there?

Had he met someone that didn't agree with his health?

It was too bright for a luminal test to be practical.

She walked around the roof perimeter. There was no obvious sign of him having jumped off the roof on anything. Was there anything?

She wandered around the roof feeling lost. She noticed some marks between the AC plant and the skylight.

Four gouges. The gouges started centimeters wide at their closest points, radiating outwards, where they simply became puddles of melted tar blown outwards. Like four jets of hot exhaust had--

"SHIT!" Daria whipped out her phone and called superintendent McFright.

"Su-" started the superintendent.

"CANCEL THAT RAID NOW, IT'S CHARLES, HE'S RUNNING THE CYBORGS!"

She heard him talking into the radio, but he sounded like he was too late, it had already kicked off.

She heard the sound of gunfire and screeching noises like that of large model rockets.

"FUCK!" she screamed, as she turned in the direction of the noises, she saw three of the cyborgs pop up, hovering in the air.

She ran off the side of the building and after a hard but tolerable landing, ran straight for her car. She pulled her USAS 12 out, it's magazine back to FSHE only, she got on the roof of her car and activated the CCIP sight.

The weapon did not have the range.

She jumped back down and got in her car.

"Agent Morgendorffer?" asked one of the cops.

"No time!" she said, starting the engine and flooring it off.

The cops followed her, escorting her as she headed off to a point under what she projected their escape route to be.

She eventually stopped and climbed onto the roof with her shotgun again, the cyborgs were now moving off en masse. She raised her weapon, knowing she had almost no time to act, the weapon on full auto, she picked one and opened fire.

It broke off and started evading, and fired back at her. Daria felt the beam penetrate her like 3mm bearings at near light speed, other shots hit her originating from other points in the formation.

The shocks from the exploding lines of vaporizing flesh rendered her limbs temporarily dead. Other beams penetrated her chest. She felt a couple penetrate her heart, her ribs were shattered, as were bits of her vertebrae.

She feared that the damage to the vertebrae would prove fatal as she fell off the car.

The cops arrived seconds after she landed on her back. The back of her head felt cold from the impact. She was concerned that might be fatal if nothing else that had happened to her did her in.

--

Part 6

--

"Daria, the next time you call me insane, remember what you did today, or I'll remind you in front of whoever's present," said Jane.

"Cute, Upchuck became Borg king and all I got are these lousy blaster wounds. Tell me we got something," said Daria.

"Well, we now know who's running the cyborg gang, which is mostly female. … "

"He's not buying whores, he's buying soldiers, he's implanting computers into them so that they can be manipulated into fighting for him," said Daria.

"Man, that's just. … … Hang on, what is it?" asked Jane.

"It's slavery, just a different task," said Daria.

"Right, right. So, what now?"

"Did the satellites see where they went?"

"They disappeared under a cloud again."

"No glimpses of a craft emerging from underneath?"

"Actually there were some disturbances, the satellites picked up some turbulence occurring within the clouds. That indicated aircraft flying through at several points, but they were optically invisible," said Jane.

"Optically invisible."

"We got some shapes though, the patterns were just a little off this time."

"Let me guess, some kind of camera/LED system?"

"Yeah, covered most the infra red part of the spectrum too, we'd have missed it if the satellite was directly overhead, which it was the last time we tried to follow them, and it was each time they made a deal, they know where our satellites are," said Jane.

"What shape were the outlines?"

"Hexagonal, Winifred thinks they're shaped for stealth geometry, the aircraft entered and left on different vectors, so we don't know where they were headed. The satellite couldn't monitor everywhere at once."

"Upchuck knows we know he's involved, he'll most likely go to ground and stay there, he might occasionally surface to buy more girls though," said Daria.

"Back to square one then," said Jane.

"Not really, no. We might learn plenty if Upchuck's been using anagrams of his name for credit cards, good thing he was that stupid, but I'm still just a little annoyed that I didn't work it out in time," said Daria.

"Sounds like you were lucky to work it out at all: If you hadn't figured out he went up on that roof, you would never have found those scorch marks, and there was even the possibility those scorch marks would have not meant a whole lot to you," said Jane.

The doctor then entered the cubicle and said "you have any idea how lucky you are one of those shots didn't intersect a major artery?"

"Do tell," said Daria.

"One went through your heart, good thing the muscle was too tough to allow the hole to grow, had to insert a probe through your femoral vein in order to get the plugs in place," continued the doctor.

"Soooo, expect a hike in my medical insurance rates," said Daria.

The doctor looked stunned for a little while, and eventually said "yes, a hike in insurance premiums. … " he then walked off.

"So, what now?" asked Jane.

"How's Illyria doing?" asked Daria.

"She reports that she's tagged at least a hundred and fifty seven gangsters, and we've managed to locate 12 of their armories, the police are preparing to raid them now." said Jane.

"Good, what about Dru and her lieutenants?" asked Daria.

"Still under surveillance, they will be picked up when we're certain we got as many of their armories as possible."

"And their factories?" asked Daria.

"Tracked them down, those are also under surveillance," said Jane.

"Okay … Back to Upchuck, have we recovered any DNA samples from his place?" asked Daria.

"I'll check, why?" asked Jane.

--

The alarm clock went off, bringing Willow out of her dreams.

"Catch you later" said Kennedy, or the figment of her imagination that resembled Kennedy, as if knowing Willow was about wake up.

"Yeah, bye," said Willow.

She lifted herself onto her elbow while trying not to disturb the vengeance demon spooned against her, as she turned off the alarm.

"You have to go to work so soon?" asked Gwen.

"Yeah, I still need to finish up on that curriculum for that magic course," said Willow.

"I'm glad you finally found a use for me." said Gwen.

"You mean another use," said Willow.

The demon chuckled and said "I suppose now you've gotten past the feelings of anger, I really shouldn't be here trying to tempt you."

"I was tempted, but I just can't really go for it, I can't come up with a decent wish. And besides, it takes the fun out of it if I outsource. And besides, Rebecca's one of the good guys."

"I am starting to like you." Said Gwen.

"And I like you too. … I mean, right now, I'm uncertain weather I'm just seeking comfort or if I'll get. … " Willow sighed and rolled over to face the demon, and said "Do you remember what happened with Anyanka?"

"Yes, I do" said Gwen.

"We could end up on opposite sides, and. … " Willow found herself blinking and sniffing back tears.

"You might have to fight me?"

"I could end up having to kill you, or one of my colleagues will, and if I get too attached, and that happens. … I'm like some sort of bad luck charm as far as all my girlfriends go."

Gwen watched as Willow's eyes dripped tears onto the pillow, and said "it's a risk. … maybe I'll be lucky."

--

Daria entered the Morgendorffer house and recoiled a little at the smell of fresh vomit.

She looked over to the couch and found Jake unconscious on the couch.

She walked over to him and watched for a while.

When she detected movement in his chest, she left him and headed to the utility room for the water assisted hoover that she had bought on a hunch that they would be making extensive use of it.

--

Jake awoke to the noise of a vacuum cleaner, this was assaulting his brain like a pair of 1/2 kg claw hammers doing a drum roll on is head.

He opened his eyes to see Daria cleaning up the carpet in front of the couch with the wet hoover, upon seeing him awake, she reached for a glass of water on the coffee table and handed it to him.

She resumed cleaning as he took it and sipped at it, tasting the aspirin that had been dissolved in it.

He then heard Quinn say "Hi Daria."

"Quinn, I'm off sick for the next few days, so, I figured I'd use them here."

"Oh good, thanks Daria." Said Quinn, sounding vaguely insincere.

--

"So … what are you down with?" asked Jake.

"Bunch of directed radiation wounds, including one through my heart. Have to wait for the plugs to fuse with the tissue before I do anything extraneous … I'm sorry I've been leaving you guys alone for all this time," said Daria.

"It's okay, we've been coping just fine, right Quinn?"

Jake's enthusiasm was about as infectious as a taste for faeces.

"What he said, only with actual sarcasm," said Quinn.

"Dad … if you were coping, you wouldn't be getting absolutely shit faced every night. Tell me you're not driving home in that state," said Daria.

"No, and it's not every night, it's every … well, I vary the schedule a lot," said Jake, trying to remember what nights he came home in what state.

"Quinn, how's it been like for you?"

"Well, you know, lack of sleep, depression, panic attacks, exhaustion. Haven't been able to go out on a date since the incident."

"Right, because of the thing with the vampires," said Jake, who then mouthed to Daria "she's crazy." Tapping his farthest temple from Quinn.

Daria looked at Quinn, who said "Well, you weren't around for me to talk to, I had to try to get him in."

"Sorry about that," said Daria.

"You keep saying that," said Quinn.

"I have a lot to apologize for," said Daria.

"I don't think there's a lot you can do to make up for what's happened," said Quinn.

"It's a pretty deep energy well alright," said Daria.

"Energy well?" asked Quinn.

"You know how you need to heat stuff up before it will react or burn?" said Daria.

"Oh," said Quinn.

"Look, it's not like I would have much spare time anyway. If I quit, I get jailed, or can never set foot on US soil ever again. Or take a casual stroll out of wherever I hide out, but I haven't been making the greatest effort to maintain contact, I'll move back here at the end of this month permanently. Be a longer drive to work, but it'll mean I'll be here for you," said Daria.

"You don't have to do that kiddo," said Jake.

"Yeah, we're cool," said Quinn

"Dad, you're doing your liver in, and Quinn … you make me look cheerful. … I gotta try something."

They just sat there picking at their breakfasts for a few minutes.

"So, School's gonna start in a few days," commented Daria.

"Yeah, our senior year is going to be very weird without Stacy, or Tiffany," said Quinn.

"Tiffany called me to say she checked out of the hospital, she's going to take the next few days to work out what she wants to do. She might show up at school if she gets bored enough," said Daria.

"Going to school to escape boredom … that's just wrong," said Quinn.

--

Tiffany entered her new room.

The house was different to the house that had stood before. For starters, it was made mostly of steel reinforced concrete, the Blum-Decklers would have had to pay about 70 of the costs themselves because their insurance only covered the wooden house that had come before, but they suddenly got very generous (probably thanks to her new job, but their new bosses probably hid more bugs in the walls than what you'd find in a termite mound).

Of course, that meant if she ever quit, the insurance company would be like "'scuse me, been a mistake, we're gonna need that money back," on top of the threat of prison, but she didn't need to be on the front line unless she wanted to be there. She could help sift data with Daria.

Yeah, she could do that … well, she was thought qualified because a telephone signal analyzer of the kind used for tracing calls was found in her possession. She had obtained it from an Ex CIA agent when she was being stalked once. What she didn't tell them was that she couldn't get it to work for her as anything other than a paperweight.

And that was before she started medicating herself for PTSD.

Speaking of, the shrinks had discussed anti depressants with her, but she had decided against because she felt that had been what led her to torture Daria.

They didn't push the issue, but asked her to reconsider if she did start having difficulty.

Right now, she wasn't feeling depressed, she was feeling numb.

This numb feeling was disturbing, she wanted to feel something, and the longer this numbness persisted, the more antsy she got. The way most people dealt with this feeling was to start cutting their skin. That was why Tiffany had procured those drugs last time.

Tiffany instead decided to head down to the houses basement, where a training room (covered by the NSA) Equipped with some exercise gear including a number of punching mats and an open area where she could set up targets and start beating the crap out of them.

--

"Tiffany dear?"

Tiffany stopped what she was doing and turned to her mother.

"Dinner's just about ready."

"Okay" said Tiffany.

She then followed her mom up the stairs and through to the dining room.

She didn't eat very fast.

"How are you feeling right now?" asked her mom.

"Bit numb," said Tiffany.

"Doc said that can get bad," said her mom.

"I know," said Tiffany, continuing her progress through the delicious, but currently unappetizing food.

But Tiffany knew that her low appetite was not a symptom of being full, it was the same thing that made her feel numb.

"You know we're here for you, if you need our help with anything, right?" asked her dad.

"Yes," said Tiffany.

Tiffany's parents watched her eat.

Eventually Tiffany sighed and said "Look, it's not like I haven't dealt with mental problems before, I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm not going to do anything rash, I didn't last time, I'm not going to this time."

"Why didn't you tell us what happened the first time?" asked her dad.

"Because it would have been too much to deal with. Even if I glossed over the fact my rapists were vampires, I would have had to think about how much you could check up on, and the fact you would have involved the police. They would have investigated the case and found my statements don't add up, it was just easier on me if you didn't know what had happened to me, one less thing to deal with," said Tiffany.

Her parents absorbed this information and her dad said "You didn't think you could trust us?"

"I didn't think you'd believe me if I told you about vampires, and I didn't want you stressed out over what had happened to me, yeah? I love you, and seeing you stress over me would have hurt, it just seemed that it would be easier on you if you believed I had ran off, cleared my head, and returned unharmed than if you knew I had spent several weeks getting brutally tortured. I'm sorry for the deception, I … … I just didn't want you to … … I was trying to protect you," said Tiffany.

There was more silence as her parents absorbed Tiffany's statement.

"You're still our child, we should be protecting you," said Tiffany's mom.

"I'm a vampire slayer, if I need protection, you're fucked," said Tiffany.

That caused looks of shock to appear on her parents faces.

"Sorry," said Tiffany.

--

"Contact, 11 o'clock" said Carl.

Brad glanced at the house they were driving past, there were three girls walking out to a yellow convertible. Two were Sandi and Quinn, the girls they had escorted home that night all those months ago, and the third was … "fucking traitors!"

Carl and Brad Farranger had been searching the town for that Chinese girl ever since their chapter got massacred by what the police had finally concluded was a horizontal hailstorm.

"What do we do? Do we kill them here, or find somewhere else?" asked Carl.

"Let's follow them for now, maybe we can find a suitable spot to make an example of them in," said Brad.

--

"So … " said Jake.

"So … wanna go out for lunch?" asked Daria.

"Sure, Kiddo," said Jake.

Daria nodded and they headed out.

--

"So … I guess if anything interesting happened at the NSA, you couldn't talk about it" said Jake.

"Not legally," said Daria.

"Right," said Jake.

"Apparently Upchuck's got this cyborg army," said Daria.

"Upchuck?" asked Jake.

"Charles Ruttheimer the 3rd, call sign Upchuck because he keeps hitting on anything with tits with the most irritating lines in the most irritating voice imaginable," said Daria.

"Right," said Jake.

"How's the consultancy business?"

"Well … I've lost a couple of clients, they saw me hung over," said Jake, somewhat depressed.

"You get pissed, I bury myself in work, Quinn's probably the least self destructive of us," said Daria.

"Except she believes in vampires," said Jake.

"Remind me to prove they're real some time," said Daria.

"GAH! You too?" screamed Jake.

Daria reset her eardrum as she said "'fraid they're real, as is magic apparently," said Daria, she then concentrated on the cellphone in it's charger and car audio hookups. She telekinetically lifted it into the air and spun it a few times, before putting it back.

Jake was stunned into silence.

--

Quinn and Sandi weren't as into 'Waif' now as they would have been last year.

"So what theme should we go with?" asked Quinn.

"Something dark?" asked Sandi.

"I don't feel like doing something gothic," said Tiffany.

"Okay, not going gothic … what about something matrix?" asked Sandi.

"I don't think we should go with something that's likely to freak out Principal Li." Said Tiffany.

"Okay, then how about something earthy?" asked Quinn.

Sandi groaned.

"This is going to take a looooooong time," said Tiffany.

--

Daria and Jake started searching the restaurant area for something they felt was appetizing.

"What are you into kiddo?"

"Usually Pizza, but for some reason I feel like trying something different."

They looked around.

"KFC?" asked Jake.

Daria looked around.

"How about Tai?" asked Daria.

"Isn't that the same as Chinese?" asked Jake.

"That's just what the Chinese want you to think," said Daria.

--

"This is going nowhere fast," said Tiffany.

"Food?" asked Quinn.

"Food," said Sandi.

They bought the few items of clothing they could agree on and headed out.

--

"Daria, I've never been that much of a contributor to our finances, I mean, I guess that's where most of my stress comes from, I want to put Quinn through college."

Daria shrugged and said "Well, my job's paying pretty well, I should be able to help out."

"Yeah, but you're high risk, you got shot full of holes yesterday." Said Jake.

"Hmm … Okay, I got nothing," said Daria.

They then saw Quinn, Sandi and Tiffany approach them with shopping.

"That any good?" asked Sandi.

--

"So, do we go in?" asked Carl.

"Only if the gook goes to the bathroom," said Brad.

"Guns?" asked Carl.

"Too quick," said Brad.

"Only if you shoot her in the head, shoot her in the hip, she'll be immobilized and it will hurt her while we also shoot a vital organ that will kill her slowly," said Carl.

--

The topic of conversation bored the crap out of Daria.

She was in the looking around the room for something of interest mode as she continued to eat, she had been hoping to get some one on one time with Jake to help him get over Helen's death, but Quinn Tiffany and Sandi had seen them and had joined them for lunch and had hi-jacked the conversation.

The two people outside the restaurant - she had seen them before. She couldn't quite place them, but they looked familiar, and not in any good way.

"Daria! Distracted much?" asked Quinn.

Daria glanced at Quinn and said "Sorry, you wanted something?"

"What are you looking at?" asked Quinn.

--

Eventually their patience paid off, Tiffany went to the bathroom, they followed.

The staff at the restaurant looked puzzled that they didn't wait at the front of the restaurant to be seated, but the time it was taking them to decide whether to intercept or just leave them to it would be sufficient.

They entered the girls room and saw only one stall locked, the other 7 were open.

They kicked open the door and saw a different girl sitting there.

"Woah," said Brad.

"Sorry, wrong stall," said Carl.

They heard someone whistle a cuckoo noise behind them, and saw the girl they were chasing pointing two micro-Uzis at them.

The girl in the stall they had just broken into stood up and said "never underestimate the predictability of stupidity," she held out her hands to receive their guns.

"Fucking race traitor," said Carl.

"Ought to slot you right here," said Brad.

They just handed their weapons to Daria though.

"Right, I'm arresting you for threatening behavior, criminal damage, stalking, and conspiracy to commit murder. You do not have to say anything, anything you say may be recorded and presented as evidence, you have the right to have a lawyer present during questioning, you have the right to have someone informed of your arrest. You understand your rights so far?"

"Yesssssss," they chorused.

--

"I thought you had time off," said Quinn as Daria stepped into the reception area of the police station, where she, Jake, and Sandi were waiting.

"I can't help where the forces of evil choose to attack me or my friends," Said Daria.

"I guess we should have expected this," said Sandi.

"Yeah, we need to be real careful here, we're going to see who they inform of their arrest. Hopefully we can get their back-up before they can try anything," said Daria.

--

Carl and Brad watched the clock.

It was eventually time.

Carl stood up and went to the cell door and said "I'd like to make my phone call now."

--

Daria was watching the Sick Sad World article on the Iraqi cop moonlighting as a terrorist with Quinn and Jake when her phone rang.

"Y'ello?"

The two of them watched as Daria conversed with the caller and finally she thanked them and hung up, she then said "Our coneheads called someone, the number they called was a stolen cell phone. It was recovered from a bin on a bus, which wasn't fitted with a camera, so we got fuck all right now."

"What does this mean?" asked Quinn.

"It means, this ain't over." Said Daria.

--

Kirsty Kramer practiced with her claymore (the sword, not the mine) as the other Klansmen in her unit practiced their unarmed combat or watched on.

Ever since that incident in Lawndale, she and her unit had moved to a staging area close by. The forward reconnaissance team would search for the Asian girl that had slaughtered the Lawndale chapter and would kill her if possible, or report what they could if an attack proved not to be an option.

But based on what they had, she could tell that this girl was special somehow.

But, then again … so was she.

It wasn't just her visions from the past, or her abnormal aggression, but she had been blessed recently with enhanced strength.

"Kirsty?" another Klansman, an office gopher, entered the training area (none of the sections have been walled off as such, the only real perimeter was one of Klansmen camouflaged in a line with assault rifles, they talked through a speaker line that anyone of them could hook an amplified microphone to).

"Yes?" she asked.

"Brad and Carl were arrested, apparently those two girls they escorted home weren't allies after all, they were seen associating with that chink," said the Klan Gopher.

"Right, I think it's time for us to meet miss ice dragon in her home," said Kirsty.

"We just happen to have her address," he handed her a page torn from a hand sized notebook.

"Right," she then signaled for everyone to assemble in front of her, they were going to plan the operation.

--

"What exactly are we looking at with the Klan anyway?" asked Quinn.

"Depends which cell we're talking about. Klan started off as a sore losers club for ex-confederates, then it died out, and got resurrected due to the popular appeal of a movie called 'Birth Of A Nation' combined with the generous helping of ignorance I've come to expect from the general public.

"Throughout their existence they've been a menace, but now they're severely fragmented. On the plus side, we don't have to worry about them overthrowing the government, but that does give us a problem when it comes to figuring out what they are going to do. Some of them are a joke, basically sit around the TV downing beers saying 'fucking niggers ruin everything' all the time. Some of them are busy trying to demonstrate that the Ku Klux Klan can be multicultural, that they're not supposed to be a lynching mob, but some of them are highly militant and well organized.

"The Lawndale chapter that Willow took out was one of the highly militant groups, they might have been in contact with other like minded groups. They certainly have procedures for avoiding NSA surveillance, odds are they'll be right on top of us before we see them," said Daria.

Quinn and Jake looked scared.

"My workmates are watching us, The Blum-Decklers and the Griffins closely," said Daria.

"Oh, okay," said Jake.

"That's a relief," said Quinn simultaneously.

--

Tiffany headed down to the kitchen, having woken from another of those fucking dreams.

She then noticed a goon in a forest DPM suit pointing an AK47 at her.

She ducked back just in tome to avoid getting a load of holes in her, rolling to the nearest door on her left, which was the bathroom.

She heard the goon step up onto the landing and he unloaded his weapon through the door.

She managed to get up against one of the walls next to the door without getting hit, the goon then kicked his way through the door and Tiffany grabbed him, smashing his face against her knee. She grabbed his weapon and noticed movement behind the goon, it was another goon. She threw the first goon back into the second goon, and saw a third behind him as she emerged into the corridor. She threw the assault rifle she had at him, it not having been reloaded yet, that was the only way it was going to do any harm. The first goon was now unconscious, so she concentrated exclusively on the second and third goons.

The third goon was pulling his sidearm, the second was still trying to get his shit together, so she dragged the second with her as she grabbed the third goon's weapon hand. They all went down the stairs, Tiffany rolling head over heels and landing on her feet as the goons bounced off the stairs halfway down and landing in a heap at her feet. She was about to examine the bodies at her feet when she noticed movement at her 3 o'clock.

A dark blonde girl with light freckling and the same sort of DPM suit as the other goons was pointing a silver revolver with a 64mm barrel at her and had a medieval European looking broadsword over her other shoulder.

Tiffany ceased all movement with the exception of visual examination of the girl.

The suit had a familiar looking badge (red circle, white cross with flared tips, diamond border and some sort of blood drop) above a set of three chevrons (Sergeant?) on it's shoulder indicating she was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

A few seconds later, Tiffany was wondering why she was still alive.

"So you're the one," said the girl.

"Who are you?" asked Tiffany.

"Kirsty Kramer, Staff sergeant of the 43rd black legion."

"Staff sergeant? … no grand dragon or great and wonderful wizard?" asked Tiffany.

The girl chuckled a little and said "what about you? You got some powers too, don't you?"

"Yeah, I'm a vampire slayer," said Tiffany.

"A vampire slayer? Sounds like a sillier title than the stuff we had. Wanna show me some of these powers?" asked Kirsty.

Tiffany slowly turned to Kirsty placing her feet under one of the unconscious goons assault rifles, she said "sure, why not?" and then kicked the weapon at the girl who had to take her weapon off of Tiffany for a spit second.

The time Tiffany needed to jump at her, deflecting the pistol before Kirsty could bring it back to bear on Tiffany. They landed on the floor, Tiffany somersaulting, pulling the pistol out of Kirsty's hand as she left.

Tiffany brought the gun to bear on Kirsty, but Kirsty had managed to get back to her feet in the time Tiffany's eyes were off her, and the tip of the sword struck the gun's magazine, knocking it out of Tiffany's hand.

Tiffany closed range before Kirsty could bring the sword back, Kirsty released the sword and threw a punch, which Tiffany deflected. She then used the pummel on the sword to punch Kirsty in the throat, Kirsty backflipped, catching Tiffany in the face, but only as Tiffany was moving it out the way. Tiffany had to step back as she recovered, she ended up next to a dresser unit with several cut crystal vases on it. She grabbed one and threw it at Kirsty, following the vase hoping to get some critical punches in before Kirsty could get her shit together.

Kirsty managed to sidestep and swing Tiffany into the wall behind her causing Tiffany to drop the sword, Tiffany kicked Kirsty away. Kirsty collided with the table behind her flipping over it, and Tiffany followed, hoping again to get some decent kicks and/or punches in.

Her foot missed Kirsty's face Kirsty tried to sweep Tiffany's feet, but Tiffany jumped in time. Tiffany tried to get a punch to Kirsty's face, she caught the girls face, but it was moving away from her. The girl managed to bring her feet around and got Tiffany in a scissor hug, she managed to bring Tiffany onto the floor and pulled a knife. She got it within about 12cm of Tiffany's face before Tiffany intercepted it, and started kneeing Kirsty's kidneys.

She wasn't getting much energy in, she instead brought her other hand to Kirsty's knife hand and tried to stab one of Kirsty's thighs, but Kirsty also brought her other hand around and equalized the strength.

This girl was surprisingly strong.

"You say you were recently blessed with enhanced strength, how recently?" asked Tiffany.

"Why?" asked Kirsty.

"Because I want to know what your deal is, you're not a vampire, I would have sensed it. You're not the First Evil's running mate … … " Tiffany suddenly realized something.

"What?" asked Kirsty.

"You're a vampire slayer, aren't you?"

"What?" asked Kirsty.

"You suddenly got stronger a year and a couple of months ago, right?" asked Tiffany.

"Yeah," said Kirsty.

"Unfortunately these powers don't seem to come with a sense of right or wrong," said Tiffany.

Kirsty broke her scissor lock and rolled, taking Tiffany with her, but Tiffany then kicked Kirsty in the face sending her back against the wall dividing the dining room from the kitchen.

Tiffany got to her feet in time to deflect an attempt to stab her, swinging Kirsty around again, but Kirsty was able to arrest her momentum and managed to get a punch in on Tiffany's face. Tiffany brought her hands which were both on her knife hand to punch Kirsty's face, then her hands separated and she got two more punches in and then kneed Kirsty in the stomach. She then kicked Kirsty's left knee out, Kirsty brought her right foot to Tiffany's face, Tiffany spun around and got a reverse kick into Kirsty's ribs.

Kirsty wrapped an arm around Tiffany's foot and kicked Tiffany's other leg out, she then stood up, using Tiffany's leg to pin her while she stepped on Tiffany's throat.

Tiffany tried to use her other foot to try to push Kirsty back as she tried to push Kirsty's foot back, but there was enough forward force left over to choke Tiffany.

"Gotcha now, don't I you filthy chink?"

There was suddenly a crash.

Kirsty looked behind her, but this didn't give Tiffany any advantages. If she moved her hands to any of the useful pressure points, her trachea would be squashed flat, but the oxygen deprivation was reducing her muscle force and she was headed for a crushed trachea anyway.

She heard Jane say "Owwww."

Tiffany tried to invite Jane in, remembering that she had never done that before, but it wasn't happening.

She then saw a piece of Kirsty's neck explode, and Kirsty leapt away from Tiffany.

Tiffany sat up in time to see Kirsty's foot disappear around a corner.

The window Jane had broken trying to get in was still obscured by the roller blind, which now had a bullet hole in it with pettalling from the force of the muzzle blast.

"Come in Jane," she said a couple of times, but she could only wheeze the words right now, she sat there breathing.

There were a couple more gunshots, Tiffany finally got to her feet and walked through the house to the back.

Jane was there at the back door, looking kind of lost, she said "She got away."

Tiffany nodded and just about said "Come in."

Jane waved her hand over the threshold and then stepped in, asking "you alright there?"

"Yeah, … I'm-" she then entered a coughing fit she had been holding off as best she could.

They heard sirens.

"Got some prisoners," said Tiffany, when she managed to stop coughing long enough.

"Sweet," said Jane, she stepped through the house, cracking her knuckles.

--

"Sandi's missing, along with her dad and brothers, and all the agents on surveillance are dead," said Daria. She, Jake and Quinn had made their way over to Tiffany's house, they had called the police on the way and had found out the Griffin's were missing.

"Plus I didn't get to repay that Klan bitch for shooting me," said Jane, who was now sporting an entry wound in the sternum.

"I can't believe I forgot to invite you in earlier," said Tiffany.

"Eh?" asked Tiffany's dad.

"Vampires need to be invited to enter a dwelling," said Daria.

"Eh?" asked Tiffany's dad.

"Mystical physics, gets really weird, makes general relativity look simple," explained Daria.

"Right … whatever," said Tiffany's dad.

"They're probably alive, the only reason I can think for them to relocate them would be if they thought there was a chance of mission failure and they needed hostages to maneuver Tiffany into a killing zone," said Daria.

"They'd probably become expendable once I'm dead," said Tiffany.

"Tiffany?" asked Daria.

"If I hadn't ran away-" started Tiffany.

"Alright stop! Tiffany, shit happens, okay? Right now, I just want to focus on getting the Griffins back alive, okay?" Said Daria.

"Yes," said Tiffany.

"Good," said Daria.

A car pulled up outside the Blum-Deckler house.

Tiffany went to the front door to invite Spike in, and Spike, Winifred and Robodaria entered.

"Are you okay Jane?" asked Spike.

"Yeah, just got shot through the heart, that's all," said Jane.

"Not many people who can shrug off that kind of injury," said Winifred.

"I'm hooked into the phone lines. If they use them, we'll get them," said Robodaria.

"Sweet. Jane, call your mother - I think we're going to need her," said Daria.

"I couldn't have predicted encountering the Klan that night, but I have been letting myself get rusty of late, I'll be downstairs if you need me," said Tiffany.

"Tiffany, are you sure you're all right?" asked her mom.

"Fine, y'know, if Jane weren't there to pick up the slack, I'd be dead, and you and dad would have been next. I mean, this isn't the first time a slayer's gone bad, and the distribution of potential slayers is so incredibly random … excuse me," Tiffany headed down the stairs.

--

"And five, four … " the camera man said, signing the last three numbers, before hitting record.

"Good evening, I'm Staff Sergeant Kirsty Kramer of the Ku Klux Klan, and I have a message for the world to hear.

"There are two ways this will go down, one way is that I kill all those I am holding. They're race traitors, so I want to do that anyway, but that won't look too good if the Zionist occupied government looks like it doesn't care. But the other way, and I want this so much that I am willing to forgo the execution of my prisoners in order to get it, is to kill that slimy chink Tiffany Blum-Deckler for what she did to those Klansmen in the forests surrounding Lawndale all those months ago."

Kirsty then paused for a second thinking "Blum-Deckler … That's a kike name innit? Fucking Jew too, ain't ya? Well, anyway, I imagine Tiffany would like to have a go at me, so we're going to do this thunder dome style, y'know, two go in, one comes out. The other sort of lies there dead until the smell starts attracting scavengers."

--

Rebecca was walking down the corridor when she heard Willow say "Rebecca?"

She turned, just about concealing her apprehension.

"We need to talk," Said Willow.

Rebecca nodded and followed Willow into an empty class room.

Willow selected a table near the windows to sit on, Rebecca stood nearby behind her, waiting for Willow to talk.

Eventually Willow said "How- … Have you ever been in a situation where you have lost comrades to an enemy, and then had to make peace with that enemy? Or even co-operate with the same soldiers you know killed your friends recently?"

"No," replied Rebecca.

Willow remained silent for a while and eventually said "have you ever considered the possibility of such an event?"

"Yeah … mostly it's when I start musing randomly, but there are events that bring up the subject … like every second I spend around you or the other slayers or watchers or other affiliated personal," said Rebecca, keeping her voice calm, her sentences short and to the point.

Willow again remained silent for some time.

"Have you ever gotten any of your friends killed?"

Rebecca thought briefly through all her battles, including the ones she fought before joining the SAS.

"I don't think I have, I nearly moved a booby trapped body with other personal nearby, but that's as close as I've been," replied Rebecca.

More silence.

Rebecca finally asked a question of her own: "have you been made aware that I'm the one who killed Kennedy?"

"I saw you do it," replied Willow.

More silence.

"I had been telepathically linked with Kennedy numerous times, I could sense her emotional state a lot of the time. It was a bit trippy, but it was also comforting when she was happy.

I knew when she was happy, when she was cranky, when she was amused, when she was horny, when she was mad … … I felt her fear from quarter the way around the world, she was trapped along with a group of slayers and watchers. She was about to drop her shields, so I reached out to her and took control.

"She let me take control, trusting me to see her through, I sent my energy over too, and teleported all the slayers and watchers out of there."

"And since I was a slayer, I got beamed over too," stated Rebecca.

"Yes … I managed to restrain you and remove your weapon … when I realized you were a slayer, I told you what you were and tried to convince you that we weren't the enemy," said Willow.

"And I went along until I had an opportunity to kill the witch who seemed to have all the magical abilities," said Rebecca.

"Kennedy trusted me completely, and I got her killed," said Willow.

"You fucked up, it happens … You know, I'll never take the piss out of the Americans for their friendly fire incidents ever again."

"That's not funny," said Willow.

"Wasn't meant to be. At the time, I was reaping vengeance for that girl I thought your lot had killed, that's how we work. It has occurred to me that I might one day get it wrong, but I never thought about something mystical happening," said Rebecca.

"Took me a while to accept the mystical too," said Willow.

"You know, when I was going through the final exam, the simulated interrogation, Henno interrupted it. Talking about a recent operation he went on, about how he had lost a lot of his unit in the middle of nowhere in a country that didn't really want them there. He asked me if that was the kind of life I wanted. … I answered yes, thinking I had thought about it, which I had, but no amount of thinking can ever provide any real insight.

"I fully expected to die when the slayers managed to stop me."

"I'm not sure what stopped them either. As far as I know, they pinned you down, and stopped, unsure what to do with you."

"That's a lot more patience than I would have shown."

--

The four prisoners dressed in their bed clothes with felt sacks over their heads were forced to step into view of the camera by goons who were holding them by choke chains, their hands tied behind their backs with wire ties.

Kirsty pulled the sack off of Sandi's head, Sandi squinted in the sudden light, the girl had a split lip and some bruises on her face consistent with being punched around a bit.

"Sandi Griffin, say something." Said Kirsty.

"You're so dead." Retorted Sandi.

Daria was the only one who didn't seem to so much as wince, as everyone else gasped and said "No!", but she was thinking the same thing everyone else was: 'Sandi, you fucking idiot! Stay alive.'

Kirsty punched Sandi in the abdomen, the goon behind her holding her head up against Sandi's bending over in pain. She eventually stood up, coughing, Tom asked "What you doing to her you rat bastards?"

Kirsty asked "Wanna watch?" as she stepped over and removed Tom's hood, his face had similar trauma to Sandi's.

Kirsty then pulled a knife and started running the tip along Sandi's body, causing Sandi to react involuntarily.

"If I didn't think she'd enjoy it, I'd have my unit sodomise her in front of you," said Kirsty.

Tom couldn't come up with a response, everyone realizing the position he was in was that if he was to deny Sandi was a slut, they would possibly rape her, and if he let it slide, it felt like he was helping them insult her.

"You seem awfully fixated on me-"

'Don't say it' thought Daria, as she gritted her teeth, anticipating the inevitable conclusion to the sentence.

"-for a supposedly straight woman."

Kirsty seemed to snap, and started kneeing and kicking the crap out of Sandi.

This continued with Tom protesting loudly and everyone watching this feeling sick, but eventually Kirsty stopped.

Sandi could barely stand, her face was starting to turn a deep maroon when Kirsty ordered the goon to let her fall.

"You might not be aware of this, but here in the Ku Klux Klan, the Geneva Convention is something we only turn to in times of running out of our normal toilet paper. In fact, I'm starting to think you're not going to take this seriously until we kill one of our prisoners."

Kirsty walked off screen, and eventually returned with a bottle of caustic soda, she read the back of it saying "Extremely corrosive, wear rubber gloves when using, do not ingest, do not use metal buckets or wooden stirrers, hang on a minute." She placed the bottle on the floor and left the screen again.

"She's bluffing, right?" asked Quinn.

Daria's silence was not reassuring.

"Daria, please, tell me she's bluffing."

The camera kept panning between Sandi and Tom, both looked increasingly worried.

"You two, you should also put on gloves, then take the prisoners off those two," said Kirsty off to the side.

Daria recalled the State Sam Griffin had returned in, he was in a state that indicated that he had witnessed one of his family members being killed horribly and slowly.

He had basically walked into the police station carrying the video tape titled 'for Tiffany's viewing pleasure', he hadn't said a word to anyone.

This tape was getting seriously sadistic, both Tom and Sandi were watching the Klansmen preparing to execute someone by force feeding them Caustic soda. She didn't know weather this would be dry or dissolved, but this was going to be bad if they weren't-

Quinn Grabbed Daria, turning her around to face her and screamed "ANSWER ME DAMN IT!"

"I don't know," said Daria.

They resumed watching the tape.

"Okay, I think we're ready now," said Kirsty.

Two Goons now wearing rubber gloves and rubber aprons took Sandi and Tom off the other two goons and Kirsty, similarly dressed, said "get them on their knees."

"Now, one of you must die, but which one?" asked Kirsty.

Both prisoners were silent now, they had been since Kirsty first picked up the bottle, and that bottle was now open.

She walked over to Tom and said "You should have raised her better, she should have known not to associate with non-whites."

She then walked over to Sandi and said "if you hadn't aided and abetted an enemy of our race, you wouldn't be here right now."

She then walked back to Tom and said "when was the last time you went to church?"

She then walked to Sandi and said "Have you ever seen the inside of a church?"

She walked around the pair of them, and finally stopped next to Sandi, saying "You're the one with the dirty mouth, let's clean it out."

The goon holding Sandi grabbed her head and pulled at her jaw, but wasn't having much success, and Sandi was now struggling to get away from them. Tom was screaming at Kirsty not to do it.

Kirsty put one hand on Sandi's chin and pushed at Sandi's gums, her enhanced strength was sufficient to open Sandi's mouth. Her rubber coated fingers then crawled into Sandi's mouth, the camera hovered over Sandi's terrified face as Kirsty moved the bottle up to Sandi's cheek.

Kirsty then slowly poured the granules into Sandi's upturned mouth, pouring down her throat where Kirsty's fingers were pushing it down her oesophagus.

Some point after Kirsty had started this, Sandi vomited. Kirsty's hand deflected the vomit from her, it dribbled down Sandi's chin, a few more spurts and Kirsty resumed pouring the white granules down Sandi's throat.

It looked like half the bottle had been unloaded when Sandi started vomiting blood.

A lot of blood.

The camera man panned down, showing that Sandi had started pissing herself, there was even some fecal matter dripping out through the leg hole of her shorts.

He moved back as Kirsty and the goon holding Sandi's head did, and Sandi was left to try to get the stuff out of her.

But everyone knew she was fubar.

Eventually Sandi lay face down on the ground, she started convulsing a little, she was alarmingly pale, and the blood was just gushing out of her mouth.

The camera man focused on Sandi's face again, pushing her shoulder back as she rolled down, keeping her face in view.

Her Jaw was moving a little, and her mouth was filling with blood, there was no obvious way she could be breathing, and she wasn't reacting to the obstruction to her airway, her face was covered in blood from the vomiting.

There was no obvious threshold between life and death, Sandi's eyes didn't close, they just stared blankly.

Eventually Kirsty said "whew, I bet that hurt."

The camera looked up at Kirsty who said "I'll be sending a pilot in a helicopter to pick you up Tiffany. If you want Tom and Chris Griffin back alive, you will board that helicopter with a sword and will meet me in combat, or you will see two more videos of this kind, got it? Good."

The image turned to static.

Daria pulled her phone and made a call.

--

Kirsty buried the last mine.

She was going to enjoy this.

She wished she could kill that bitch that had shot her too, because it was her that had interrupted the killing of that kike chink bitch.

How can someone survive being shot through the heart?

It didn't matter, this time, Tiffany was going down, she had her, all she had to do was finish the job she started.

She checked her watch.

--

Tiffany entered the kitchen and opened the cupboard under the sink.

"If I had the time to do so, I could whip up a blister agent for insertion into Klan girl's trachea," said Daria.

They heard a rotor craft approach.

"But we don't," stated Tiffany as she grabbed a bottle of sodium hydroxide and examined it.

Tiffany was now dressed in a black tracksuit and combat boots, she was carrying a pair of Dao swords that Jane had made for her. The blade outline was about the only thing that was traditional about the sword, Jane had been using her newfound access to machines to make a diamond knurled grip, and the surface texture of the blade had been machined with 2mm pyramids that were inclined to absorb all light. The 30° valleys made all but 3mm of the cutting edges pitch black. Jane was especially proud of that feature, and Tiffany had been getting comfortable with these weapons.

Tiffany didn't know for a fact that Kirsty wouldn't just shoot her once she was in their custody, or if the Klansmen coming to transport her to the fight venue wouldn't just shoot her. But there was a good chance based on the fact that the girl was a total sadist, she would at least want Tiffany in front of her when she killed her, but she would want to do it slowly.

It was a supervillian cliché that they wanted their foes to die slowly, but the fact she had forced a fistful of caustic soda down Sandi's throat seemed more than just a means to get them mad. Tiffany was certain the girl had enjoyed what she had done, and Tiffany knew how close the girl had come to killing her, so there was a chance.

"I wish I could suggest an alternative," said Daria.

"Yeah, well, I don't care," said Tiffany.

She pocketed the bottle and a pair of PVC gloves, and walked out of the kitchen.

"Kirsty's mine, make sure everyone understands that," said Tiffany.

"Right," said Daria.

The helo, a Hughes 500, was orbiting the empty street.

It came to a hover over it, and descended to about a foot off the ground.

A Klansman jumped out and swept an RF detector over Tiffany and the swords in her possession.

He then frisked her, he encountered the lump on her pocket, and pulled out the bottle and the gloves.

"Heh, let me guess, you want to do unto Kirsty what she did to Sandi," he said.

"I want to do worse, but I can't think of anything else at this time," said Tiffany.

He put the items back in her pocket and continued his search for firearms, lingering a little longer than necessary on her breasts and crotch, then he waved her on.

She boarded the helicopter, moving over for the guy that had felt her up, and as soon as he was aboard, they were off.

Tiffany watched the ground for landmarks or the compass on the opposite dashboard as appropriate.

This was the primary reason she was there.

--

Quinn and Jake were sat in the cafeteria of the police station as Daria worked.

Neither of them could think of anything to say.

Quinn could only see one thing: Sandi dying.

One of the officers acted as a sentry telling all who approached to leave them alone. That was appreciated, but it didn't stop Quinn thinking about how she had seen Sandi having those corrosive granules forced down her throat, and found herself again wondering at what point Sandi had in fact died?

And how long had it been? It couldn't have been longer than 5 minutes, the caustic soda would have started dissolving cell walls within seconds, and that would have started mixing with her blood, that would have started mangling even more of her oesophagus, hence the bloody vomit.

The stomach acid would have neutralized some of it, but the sheer quantity of caustic soda vs. the thin film of stomach acid meant that it was already a lost battle.

Also, how far would her oesophagus have carried the stuff?

Quinn imagined the burning sensation followed by the cold sensation.

Hydrogen-oxygen-sodium.

Surely that shouldn't be any different from hydrogen-oxygen-hydrogen.

The importance of chemistry to beauty was not lost on Quinn, but she just couldn't work out what was so different about it. Hydrogen and Sodium were both group 1 elements, that should give them similar properties, right?

That was something Daria could help her with if she were to ever get a break to come check on them.

--

The helicopter approached a clearing in the forest. It was surrounded in burning crosses, there were two red ribbon fences, Kirsty and another medieval sword was standing off to the side of the circle.

As they got closer, the ring of soil showed evidence of being disturbed recently, and triangles were hanging from the ribbons. Tiffany had an idea what was written on those triangles.

The helicopter hovered a foot off the deck again, kicking up dust, Tiffany got out.

The helo then left.

--

"What the fuck?" asked Quinn.

Jake looked up to where Quinn was looking, apparently the TV that was normally on CNN was now showing Tiffany and Kirsty standing in a ring.

"I hope you don't mind, but I'm broadcasting this on CNN, my people should hold the facilities long enough for everyone to see the entire fight," said Kirsty.

Tiffany shrugged and said "Okay," as she pulled her swords and waited for Kirsty to make a move.

"I told you to bring A sword," said Kirsty.

"I miscounted, if only I wasn't racially inferior," mused Tiffany, almost Daria like in her delivery.

The two continued to circle each other.

"You making a move or what?" asked Kirsty.

"After you," said Tiffany.

"Oh no, you first," said Kirsty.

"Alright," said Tiffany.

--

Tiffany started spinning towards Kirsty, she had to try to get a feel for her style.

Of course, if she could kill her out without a fight, that would be even cooler, but it didn't look very likely, and besides, she had to keep the fight going.

Kirsty managed to deflect each blow Tiffany rained on her. Kirsty finally attempted to skewer Tiffany, but Tiffany deflected the blade and span down the length striking Kirsty in the face with the pummel of one of her swords. Kirsty then pushed Tiffany away, trying again to stab her, but Tiffany was out of range too quick.

--

Vinny heard something wiz past him.

'Fucking flies' he thought, the noise had caused a release of adrenaline.

He just about saw some movement in the forest just before something ripped through his face.

The two Klan sentries were now too dead to get a report out.

--

Tiffany continued to fence with Kirsty, who was having trouble with Tiffany's speed.

They eventually broke and started circling each other again. "This'll hurt less if you quit resisting," said Kirsty.

"Getting tired?" asked Tiffany.

"You are?" asked Kirsty.

"Wow, go you with the five year old witticisms," said Tiffany.

"Wow, go you with the … err … " Kirsty said, quickly getting stuck, this got her mad, and she went for Tiffany again.

They ended up getting close to the inner perimeter.

Tiffany ducked into a crouch and spun away under Kirsty's swings, and cart wheeled away.

--

Tom and Chris watched as the two girls fought it out.

Tom wished Kirsty's death could involve something a little more painful than beheading, there was no need for her to kill Sandi.

Sandi could be a bully at times, but she was a good person, all she wanted to do was make the world beautiful, and she was doing better in school.

He was also angry at himself for failing to do something about this.

He didn't know what he could have done, these guys had taken out the NSA surveillance that was supposed to protect them, so probably no way he was going to do any better, but … .

Something wizzed over his head and he felt the choke chain fall against his back.

He and Chris looked behind themselves and saw that the two goons were dead, a neat hole through their heads.

Two guards on the far side of the arena collapsed.

What was going on?

--

"Amanda Lane."

"I'm going to need your help again," said Daria, she had just seen the video the Klan had sent where they had executed Sandi. Everyone else was speechless or silently waiting for orders.

"Sounds bad," said Amanda.

"It is, hostage situation, one hostage dead, they want Tiffany to go to them for some sort of duel. I need you to astrally project to Tiffany and watch where they go through her eyes, do you have a map?"

"No."

"Jane will bring one to you, I'll also need something else of you when we have the location."

"Right."

--

Jane and Spike were ready for insertion when Amanda started following Tiffany's progress out of Lawndale.

They had been ordered not to track the Helo, and they weren't.

Not using the normal equipment anyway.

Jane and Spike were ready for war, they would be inserted down wind of the arena, they would make their way over there while Tiffany bought them as much time as possible. They dressed in forest camouflage (rag leaves, veil, face paint and all) and they had wrapped two of Jane's high powered bows in rag vines.

These bows had the power to embed an arrow 10cm into concrete, and the heads had even been known to weld on impact to metal armor from the kinetic energy.

So going through several heads all at once was not going to be a problem.

Amanda networked them telepathically so that they could co-ordinate their actions for maximum kills on their first shots.

Vampires: enhanced smell, enhanced hearing, enhanced vision, enhanced strength, no thermal signature. Meaning they could see, smell, and hear the enemy long before they became visible to them.

"Daria asked me to ask you if you'll be able to extract us later."

"Yeah, why?"

"Remember the gambit spell I mentioned? Daria ordered that if there was no one left to save … "

"I see," she said.

The location they were headed to looked sufficiently far enough for Jane to enchant her entire Quiver. That would then be split between her and Spike and they would basically scatter the arrows as widely as possible.

--

Tom watched as a soldier in one of those leaf suits emerged from the forest, bow slung, he or she was now toting one of those silenced MP5s. The soldier ran up to him and pulled a pair of cutters and released him and his son.

Then there was the sound of rotorcraft.

A little while later, there was the sound of a small helicopter coming in fast and dust was kicked up as it appeared over the treetops, pitching up dramatically as it descended to about a foot off the ground.

--

"WHAT? YOU CHEATED!" shouted Kirsty realizing that all the other Klansmen were dead.

"I'M SORRY, I HONESTLY THOUGHT YOU WOULDN'T MIND ME BRINGING THE SECOND SWORD!" replied Tiffany.

"WHAT?" asked Kirsty.

"I SAID-" started Tiffany.

"YOU MOCK ME?" screamed Kirsty.

"HEYYYY, YOU KNOW ME … OF COURSE I MOCK YOU." Replied Tiffany.

Kirsty ran at Tiffany again, and kept slashing and stabbing, and not getting Tiffany at all.

Tiffany's persistence and patience was eventually rewarded as she got one laceration on Kirsty's knee. A few more seconds passed before she managed to inflict a deep cut through one of Kirsty's forearms.

Eventually she got another laceration on Kirsty's side, and Kirsty had to place a hand over the wound when she felt her intestines start to slide out.

She was fucked now and she knew it.

Eventually Tiffany disarmed Kirsty and started slashing at tendons at Kirsty's knees and elbows.

Eventually she dropped the swords and stood over Kirsty.

"What?" asked Kirsty.

"You killed Sandi for being my friend."

"Yes."

"She never did anything to you, the girl probably couldn't throw a punch."

"You killed a whole bunch of Klansmen," said Kirsty.

"They chased me down and tried to kill me, just for accidentally walking into view of one of their sad ceremonies. They didn't have to give chase, they drew first blood, they had it coming. What did Sandi ever do to you?"

"SHE'S A TRAITOR TO HER RACE!" shouted Kirsty.

"Really? … You know what? Any hostile aliens looking at our world, drooling over it's resources, would love to see us remain conflicted. They'd love to see us killing each other by the millions due to ridiculous ideologies such as racial supremacy, homophobia, religious fanaticism, I'd say you are the race traitor."

Tiffany then pulled her gloves and put them on.

"Sandi Griffin was a close friend, she helped me more than she knew. If it wasn't for her and the time we spent in our group, I would have probably killed myself a couple of years ago, or would be living out the rest of my life in a nut house. She helped me maintain enough of an illusion of normalcy to restore my sanity after a very traumatic experience, you had no reason to kill her."

Tiffany then pulled the bottle of caustic soda and opened it, she sat on Kirsty's chest.

"I don't spend nearly as much time as you obviously do coming up with torture techniques, so I hope you don't mind if I borrow yours."

Tiffany then grabbed Kirsty's face, Kirsty moved her head around, clenching her jaw tightly.

"TIFFANY, DON'T!" shouted Spike.

Tiffany looked at him.

Spike was with Jane, poking the ground with a bayonet to clear a way through the minefield.

Tiffany took some time to think about what she wanted to do.

She had about a minute to do this if at all.

Tiffany knew that she was still on live TV and that if she were to shove this stuff down her throat, she would be jailed. There would be no way for the government to give her a free pass without losing it's last shred of influence, she would be killed like a rabid dog.

And she didn't care.

She didn't care now.

Would she later?

She thought back to the times she wanted to just die.

She didn't care if she died as long as the pain and humiliation stopped.

And she had since vindicated her decision to live.

She had saved many lives, taken many vampires out of circulation.

The world needed her as a vampire slayer.

She picked up the lid and put it back on the bottle and said "you'll get yours," before standing up and walking over to the claymore sword. She then walked to the edge of the arena, and started minesweeping from her side to meet Jane and Spike.

--

"What do you think we should do?" asked Buffy.

"Honestly … I don't think there is anything we can do, this girl may be a slayer, but she's dedicated to her mission. She wants to kill every non-aryan, non-straight, non-protestant on the planet. She isn't another Dana or Faith, the girl isn't killing from poorly dealing with any personal issues. She believes her actions were correct, we can't bring her back," said Daria.

"Have you talked to her?"

Daria recalled the conversation she had had with Kirsty.

--

"-you're just another race traitor you godless heathen witch, I bet you're gay too, I hope you burn in hell-" continued Kirsty.

Daria stood there patiently waiting for her to stop.

She checked her watch again.

Eventually she got bored and walked off.

--

"Oh yeah, girl just lay there verbally abusing me, I got bored and walked off. There's no back for her to go to, and Tiffany was about a hair away from reaping vengeance," said Daria.

"I saw," said Buffy.

"I'm taking time off work for the next fortnight, my sister saw the actual murder. I also want to see if there's anything I can do for Tom, Sam and Chris Griffin. And honestly, if I were to go on operations in this frame of mind, I'm likely to start making liberal use of Jane's gambit spell."

"Like you ordered Jane to if there was no-one left to rescue?" asked Buffy.

Daria thought about it and eventually said "that was part vengeance, mostly I wanted to eliminate that group of psychos all together."

"But if it were that important, why did you let them escape?"

--

"Here's the zip disk Kirsty ordered us to get."

The default leader accepted the disc and put it in his laptop.

He opened the file on it.

It was a powerpoint presentation that basically revealed the words 'you are the weakest link, goodbye.'

"Check our perimeter," said their leader.

--

"I had Jane leave a zip disc on one of the Klansmen bodies and had her imitate one of them telling another that he had vital information on the disc, before he got 'interrupted' by an arrow through his head and several trees behind him. All the nearby population centres have been issued with a bright boy alert, we can now guarantee everyone will take that seriously after the last conflict with the first evil, it should be going off in about 15 seconds."

--

"I don't get it, 'You Are The Weakest Link', what's that supposed to be code for?" asked one of the Klansmen.

"I dunno, it would make sense if Kirsty was trying to kill us all, but that doesn't make sense either-" started the other, only to be interrupted by the sudden immersion of himself and the other Klansmen that were assembled around him in a nuclear fireball.

--

"I actually had her charm a 53mg piece of string and put that under the label, but you get the idea," said Daria.

"What yield is that?" asked Buffy.

"Six tons, 'bout the same energy as a daisy cutter."

"I'm watching the news now, the device was deep in the woods when it went off."

"I figured they would want a base they could control, if they try to hide out in an urban space, they'd quickly encounter people who are not sympathetic to their cause, that would report them, I set the yield based on that."

"What about that whole thunder dome thing, did that make sense to you?"

"It made sense to you at one point."

"Yeah, it did, she must have seen that in one of her Slayer visions."

"Notice a theme developing here?" asked Daria.

"You mean the bumper whirlwind harvest we seem to have reaped? Oh yeah … How's Tiffany?"

"Angry … She wants to return to active duty, I think I should let her, see how it goes," said Daria.

"Think it's a good idea given her anger? I know from experience that anger can impede good judgement."

"So does Tiffany."

There was some silence for a while.

"How goes the cross training program?" asked Daria.

--

Willow hurriedly searched out the correct books as the SAS continued to fight off the sword wielding skeletons and assorted low functioning predatory demons, while trying not to care about the distress of the rabbits that were getting caught underfoot.

It would seem that Willow had been a bit to ambitious in demonstrating the capabilities of magic to the SAS.

She'd have thought a bunch of Jar heads could follow orders.

--

End.


	6. Living Dead Girls 6: Denial And Deniabil

Constraints: Follows 'Living Dead Girls 5: Twister Harvest'

Synopsis: Jane's mom prepares for the birth of her grandchild, and Daria tries to hit Upchuck's angels.

Living Dead Girls 6: Denial And Deniability.

Content: Some violence, some swearing, some sexual content.

Legal: Daria belongs to MTV, Angel/Buffy belongs to mutant enemy, Ultimate Force and The Bill belong to ITV.

--

Part 1

--

Daria continued through the forest listening out for the vampires she had chased into it.

They had been moving quite fast earlier, but the noise had died down, so she was now moving slow enough to avoid excessive noise.

She wasn't hearing any movement around her.

She had a stake in the hand under her weapon's forearm, that way, if it came to an ambush, she would be better prepared.

It wasn't an easy thing to decide. On the one hand, you want to eliminate as many vampires as possible, as each vampire loose will be tens to hundreds of people dead, some of which will be turned. But if you die in the process of attempting to kill them, your ability to kill any more is severely compromised.

She heard a noise off to her two o'clock vector. She listened for half a second, then ran after it, readying herself whenever she approached a tree like-

A hand shot out, she brought the gun around, using the time to confirm it was a vampire, which it was, she stabbed it immediately and spun around looking for more. She felt someone step on the back of her knee, definitely hostile, she discharged her USAS12 over her shoulder. She obviously wasn't close, because she felt an arm encircle her neck in a reverse headlock.

She tried to stab the vampire, but her hand was caught, and a knee strike to her back caused her to drop her gun.

"Hey Daria," said Sandi, as she looked back at Daria's face over her shoulder.

"Sandi, I don't recall anyone turning you," said Daria.

"Yeah, but you did get me killed, you stupid geek!"

Suddenly Sandi cried out and disintegrated.

Daria fell with the dust, and looked up at her savior.

"Thanks Illyria."

"No, thank you," she said, as she stepped over Daria, and drove her foot into her face.

--

Daria realized she had been dreaming as she woke up with a start.

She saw it was 05:38 on a Monday.

"No other way to start the day, for me anyway," she said as she turned off the clock (no point going back to sleep now, is there?) and headed off to the shower to clean up.

--

Quinn got downstairs and got out some carrot sticks to eat as Daria finished her own breakfast.

"Ready for school Quinn?" asked Daria.

"Uh-huh," said Quinn.

Quinn was dressed in forest DPM trousers and a brown tee-shirt.

This was a radical break from her usual mode of dress for the past three or four years.

"Look like you're ready for war."

"That's school for you, anyway, that's the look we're all going with," said Quinn.

Quinn then remembered and said "The look we're both going with," as she sat down, looking like she felt really stupid.

"Phantom best friend syndrome?" asked Daria.

"Not funny," said Quinn.

"Wasn't meant to be."

"We saw her die, I know full well she's dead, her fucking funeral is next weekend, why do I keep forgetting that?"

"Because she was such a close friend to you that you almost reflexively include her in your daily plans? I ended up doing something similar when Jane had to leave," said Daria.

"Except you knew Jane was alright."

"Actually, I hoped she was alright, I didn't know for two weeks."

"You think it would have been easier to know if she was dead?"

"No, but that was pretty bad, it was basically the state you were in when Kirsty started pouring that drain cleaner down Sandi's throat."

Quinn thought about it, and said "Okay, that was worse."

"You know what's worse?"

"I probably don't want to, but what?"

"Stacy Rowe, I know she's dead. When Illyria infected her, she died, probably painfully. Yet I can't seem to absorb that fact emotionally because Illyria looks like her."

"Yeah, Brie Stacy, with penicillin for that extra tangy flavour."

"Well … yeah," said Daria, deciding not to correct Quinn on the identification of the cheeses.

They eventually got around to departing.

Until Daria opened the front door.

"Tom," exclaimed Daria.

Tom, looking startled, eventually lowered his hand from where it was about to knock the door.

"Hey Daria, I was hoping we could talk."

Daria nodded, and said "Sure, I'll just get Quinn off to school, and … complete my shift … How would tonight sound?" asked Daria.

"Good, ah, I'll pick a restaurant, and reserve a table."

"That … … I have no idea what might happen at work," said Daria.

"Okay, is there any chance of you getting any kind of leave?" asked Tom.

"Erm … Look, I'll call you tonight if I can do anything. Otherwise, I'm sorry if I can't."

Tom looked frustrated for a time, then said "Fine," as he walked off.

"Could have gone better," said Daria as Tom left earshot.

"You really need to learn a thing or three about boys," said Quinn.

"So you keep saying, come on."

--

Kevin sat up and realized something.

"I gotta get to school."

"I wouldn't," said Barry.

"Why?" Asked Kevin.

Barry had met this guy last night, and was hoping he could help him.

He was looking for this Asian girl he had previously had sex with, he couldn't remember her name, but had reason to believe she had gone to a local school here.

Just about every kid he had sired had trouble helping him narrow it down.

"Because the sun's up," said Barry.

"How's that a problem?" asked Kevin.

--

Quinn met Tiffany outside the school, Tiffany was dressed in a winter forest DPM tracksuit.

"Quinn."

"Tiffany."

They walked into school, Quinn asked "have you been able to do any school work?"

"Yeah, wasn't much else to do while I was recovering and then hiding out."

"And I've been having trouble with my studies due to the nightmares from … … anyway, I guess we should get to class."

"Not so fast girls," said the principal from behind them.

Quinn and Tiffany stopped and looked at Angela.

"Your parents should have been made aware that we will be taking measures to enforce moral codes on things such as manner of dress and possession of satanic, blasphemous or obscene items from now on."

"What?" asked Quinn.

"When did this happen?" asked Tiffany.

"After a long debate following a series of cataclysmic, one might say, apocalyptic events, it was decided that God really is mad at us."

Quinn and Tiffany groaned in disbelief saying "Aww I don't believe this!"

"Well believe it, and you had better start showing some respect for authority, open your bags, now."

--

"Hey Daria," greeted Jane as they entered the building.

"Jane," acknowledged Daria.

"We're ready to do that spell seeing spell."

"Sweet," said Daria.

"Donald got on our asses over the fact we're using it to try to gather intelligence on my kid," said Jane.

"Did he accept that it could be useful for looking for Upchuck?" asked Daria.

"Yep. But, if he's not using magic for any of this, how can he accidentally hide from us?"

--

They were halfway through their session on the firing range.

The entire troop was starting to seriously develop their skills, Willow had them practicing using throwing stars.

Willow also had them using weights to increase the force they could put out, acceleration is force over mass, so more force equals faster acceleration.

They were starting to approach thirty newtons in strength.

That could accelerate a three gram throwing star to mach one in 37.3 milliseconds, or seven metres (Yeah, "Oi! You: Enemy, get further back so I can kill you with my thought accelerated projectiles.") and a knife weighing eighty gram would need almost a second, one eight five metres ("No, further back, not closer, what the fuck kind of enemy are you? Fuck's sake.").

She wanted to get that down to as short a distance as possible. The goal was mach one in half a metre, an acceleration of 139129m/s2 would be needed. For the knife, that's around eleven kilonewtons, or just over a ton in Earth's surface gravity.

Okay, that was unrealistic, but any advantage you can get in a fight will improve your survival probability.

Of course, throwing stars only require four one seven newtons, around forty kilogram in Earth's surface gravity.

That was more realistic, and considering the increase in the number of projectiles a person can carry, this would do.

Willow watched the speedometers as the telekinesis launched projectiles shot downrange and the targets.

As soldiers, they were used to thinking about where their shots would go, correcting for badly set sights, that actually helped.

Willow looked at her watch, and shouted "CEASE FIIIIIIRRRRRRRE."

Everyone stopped.

Willow printed off the data she had been recording "Alright, I'm pleased to report that your accuracy has improved another 5, and your velocity has increased 10, but I would like you all to keep working," said Willow.

"Right, to eleven kilonewtons, no sweat," said Ed.

"Oh we'll get there," said Henno. He then continued "However, I would like to start using this in war games training, start getting everyone used to employing this new technique under battle conditions."

This caused a number of groans.

Willow chuckled and said "Fair enough, alright, dismissed, see you in half an hour," as she handed Henno a copy of the data and everyone started to leave.

Rebecca giving Willow a rather interesting look as she left.

'Nah, she wasn't … was she?'

Willow spent the next half minute trying to work out if Rebecca was really picturing her naked as it had just seemed.

That would probably not be the best kind of relationship to get into, even if Willow was free. Rebecca had killed Kennedy, it would be inappropriate for Willow to- And besides, Rebecca should know not to come onto Willow, that would just be stupid.

Willow left the range to prepare her next class, the theme was still tactical spells since the point was to prove the Watcher's Council to be indispensable.

She got halfway down the corridor when she felt her panties ride up into her crack.

She put her hand in her pocket to try to correct the problem, but her efforts only seemed to cause the panties to saw against her clit.

Willow gasped and bent over, dropping her papers.

She was bent over picking them up when she noticed movement behind her.

It was Rebecca walking off in the opposite direction.

--

"Okay, we're ready to go," said Amanda.

"Right," said Daria.

"So we just sit in our circles and meditate?" asked Jane.

"Yep," said Daria as she sat down in her circle.

"All righty then," said Jane as she sat in her circle.

Illyria and Spike also sat in their circles.

They sat there, waiting for the spell to take effect.

--

Quinn and Tiffany met outside school dressed according to the school's new uniform code.

"Quinn."

"Tiffany."

"Take two."

"Action."

They looked a couple of Victorian hats away from looking like Quaker girls.

The boys hadn't been affected by the uniform code.

Quinn wondered how this would affect the cheerleaders.

"Probably a good thing Daria's graduated, I can't really picture her standing for any of this," said Quinn.

"Or Jane," said Tiffany, "I can't believe everyone's going along with this shit, dress code had nothing to do with any of this."

"Yeah, and it's not like this shit doesn't go on all the time around the world," said Quinn.

"'Cept for the nuke, sort of resembles the wrath of god, dunnit?"

"Stupid impressionable frightened villagers," said Quinn.

They entered class, and stopped.

"You're late," said their new science teacher.

Quinn glanced at the rest of the class, and after briefly establishing it was their class, she said "Sorry about that, where's Barch?"

"That feminazi quit when we instituted a more wholesome curriculum, I'm Jeffery Presley, and you two have detention for tardiness."

Quinn was about to protest this, but said "Fine," as she and Tiffany made their way to their seats.

"New curriculum?" whispered Tiffany.

"Bad feeling here," replied Quinn.

Soon as the two girls were seated, the teacher continued what he was saying: "Now, today's experiments will focus on how matter has been organized in a manner that cannot possibly be an accident. We will be growing crystals in order to demonstrate their orderliness, to dispel any concept of randomness in the way these things work."

Four loud snaps sounded and everyone looked at Tiffany.

"Sorry about that," she said, as she dropped the sixteen fragments of the pencil she had snapped into her pencil case and got a new one out, saying "please continue."

--

Daria's eyes suddenly opened, and she found her vision was altered.

"Trippy," she said.

"Aciiiiiiid," commented Jane.

Daria looked at Jane.

Daria stood up and looked around, everyone seemed to have the ghostly impression of blinkers (as is used historically to keep horses from looking off to the side) on their heads.

"Anyone else seeing blinkers on everyone's heads?" asked Daria.

"Yes," said Amanda.

"What does this mean? Some sort of memory augmentation?" asked Daria.

"Yeah, one form of anyway, I mean, the problem with this spell is that there isn't much that can indicate the type of spell used or whoever caused it, but this is serious. If our memories have been altered, we need to know the source of this," said Amanda.

"Okay, what about my kid?" asked Jane.

"Let's get a sonar on you before this spell wears off," said Amanda.

--

"I don't think I can take an entire day of this," said Tiffany as they left class.

"Don't really see a choice," said Quinn, also fuming, "I can't believe those FUCKING ASSHATS! … Stupid fucking religious fanatical fucking shitheads!"

"I can't release any of this, not until I get home, I could demolish a couple of classrooms if I let it all out now!"

"What's next?" asked Tiffany.

"History," said Quinn.

"Well, I don't think there's anything prehistoric in our curriculum, so I can't see Dimartino walking out over any of this," said Tiffany.

--

"And so, when the two cities failed to heed the warnings, they were severely punished," continued their new history teacher, Ian Hackett.

Quinn looked worriedly at Tiffany as she held a pencil, staring straight ahead, obviously doing her best to ignore her persisting urge to break stuff.

"Can anyone tell me how Lot responded when the two angels visited? … Tiffany?"

Tiffany didn't respond.

"TIFFANY!"

Tiffany looked up, her trance broken.

"Let me guess, you were fantasizing over some boy … or even some girl … Can you tell me, what Lot said to the angels when they turned up on his door?"

"He said, 'Sorry dudes, wrong city, Tokyo three's that way,'" pointing off in a random direction.

A number of students laughed at this, understanding the reference.

"I'm sure you think you're clever, but unless you can tell me what Lot said to the two angels that visited him, you're getting detention after school."

"Okay, he said, 'In the name of my lord and savior Brian, I cast thee out!'"

"RIGHT, DETENTION, TWO WEEKS."

"Fuck that," said Tiffany, rising from her desk, she then picked up her desk and used it to demolish the cabinets lining the side of the room, causing most the other students to recoil away in alarm.

She then approached the teacher's desk and started punching holes in it.

The cowering teacher looked at her with a less authoritive, more shit scared expression on his face.

"I think I'll drop out."

--

"Okay, we're now certain Upchuck's not using any active magics to disguise his location, then … what? … " asked Daria.

"What about wood?" asked Jane.

"Some mystical shape?" offered Spike.

"Perhaps Mr. Ruttheimer used a structural material that happens to be a mystical shield," suggested Illyria.

"Okay, we're finding guns made of diamond on the streets. We're reasonably certain Upchuck's using diamond for most his machinery, and the last times we tracked his agents, they went out to sea. Which makes sense if you're hiding from conventional forces … He also wants to build structures on the sea floor quickly, so he doesn't want to be filtering plankton for their carbon, he wants something more concentrated. What is there?" asked Daria.

"Silica?" asked Jane.

"Brittle, takes ages to cool if you don't want it shattering," said Daria.

"Steel?" asked Spike, adding "Gotta be tons of the stuff from World War Two."

"Carbon Steel? A mixture of carbon and iron?" asked Illyria.

"Yeah, you'd need to process it though. Aside from the quality of the plate they used in those ships, there's over half a century of corrosion, but that would probably be the easiest way to build something," said Daria.

"What kind of process?" asked Illyria.

"Electrolysis I'd imagine, he'd also want to clean it up, he'd probably oxidize it to scrub the metal of contaminants, then electrolise it."

"That would remove all the carbon, producing ferrite!" said Amanda, suddenly realizing something.

"That's significant, is it?" asked Daria.

"Pure iron is a mystical barrier, if a person is surrounded by it, they will be invisible to locator spells," said Illyria.

"This means, of course, that he's got a shit load of oxygen that needs dumping," said Daria.

Jane, Spike and Amanda looked lost.

"Which will increase the activity of animal type plankton, creating an imbalance," explained Daria.

"Erm, I don't have any spells that will contour concentrations in the manner you're thinking of," said Amanda.

"That's not a problem, I'll get onto NASA. Meanwhile Amanda, I want our memories restored," said Daria as she left the room.

"You're welcome," muttered Amanda.

--

"What mass are we looking for?" asked Robodaria.

"Okay, well, Upchuck would probably be thinking ahead. The minimum, I think would be a dome five hundred metres wide, fifty metres high."

"Iron has a failure stress of three fifty megapascals, the dome would have to contain around thirty two point seven million cubic metres of air. Unless he wants to squash the height to around fifty metres, could fuse a torus with a dome, around ninety nine million cubic metres. That's approximately nine seventy one giganewtons of force to restrain, two seven seven four square metres. He's going to need a wall at least one point seven five nine eight metres thick, giving us at least eighty billion tons of iron. That's approximately thirty four point three seven eight billion tons of oxygen possibly."

"That should do something, right?" asked Daria.

"If he's stupid enough to simply dump the oxygen as he's producing it? Gonna look like someone dropped a supertanker load of sulphuric acid."

--

Willow sat at her table in the cafeteria, comparing tables and making notes.

She was also planning the war games as Henno had suggested.

She started to notice her breasts felt like they weren't that well positioned, like they were being … twisted? Willow set about correcting the problem, trying to be subtle as she adjusted her bra through her clothes, when suddenly her left breast fell from its cup.

Willow's eyes bugged out as she looked around, wondering if anyone was watching her.

She had no choice but to stick a hand in through her shirt to put the fugitive gland back in its place.

It was at this point that she felt her clit being pinched as if by magic.

She gasped suddenly aware of everyone staring at her.

She blushed as she considered what it looked like she was doing, but she calmly restored her underwear, and looked at Rebecca, who was apparently not paying any attention to her.

Except for a smile she decided to send her way.

--

"Got it, seventy two degrees thirty two minutes west, thirty seven degrees twelve minutes north, big ass void of all life."

Daria nodded and said "Okay, I'd like to gather more information before doing anything, are there any others?"

"Not as far as I can tell," said Robodaria, she then said "it's actually creating a trail of destruction, Upchuck must be building an entire city."

"Do any ASW planes patrol that area?" asked Daria.

"Checking … no."

"Magnetic anomaly detectors have been known to the public for ages now, I want a sub hunter to overfly the area. I also want enough ships in the area to pick up any movement, but they must have an excuse to be there, can you plan that?"

"Is Jerry Falwell a cunt?"

--

"You want two subs to sit near these co-ordinates, and you then want us to recall a large portion of our navy to the whole area gets covered," said Donald.

"I also want to get some British ships in the area for upgrades so that the north won't look as suspicious," said Robodaria.

"We should also discretely reduce the crew to a skeleton. This is seriously high risk, every contact with these people so far, we got our asses kicked," said Daria.

"We also have to assume that they are listening to all our satellite communications, someone's going to have to fly out to those ships and brief them as they move."

"We need to set up the submarine cluster so that they think we are not looking at the void."

"We'll dispatch the submarines on the ELF make a big ring centered well south of the co-ordinates, and I'll have someone sent to the ships with the mission details, do that before the recall so we don't spook the Borg," said Donald

"Alright then," said Daria.

"Looks like your people are finally doing something useful," said Donald.

"Aww shucks, it was nothing," said Daria.

"We'll get back to work now," said Robodaria.

--

"Hey Daria," said Jane as she and Spike met Daria and Robodaria in the corridor.

"Hey Jane, how'd it go with the spell search?"

"We got a location for the spell caster, we're going to go to LA to find the source. Amanda's made a compass, we're going to requisition a jet to fly over there so Amanda is ready for a fight," said Jane.

"Sweet. But, what memory spell?" asked Daria.

Jane let out a laugh, then said "we'll find out soon, I hope."

"Okay then, be lucky."

"You too," said Jane.

--

"What's up?" asked Gina as she and Willow ate.

Willow hesitantly said "I think either Rebecca, or someone who wants me to do something horrible to Rebecca, was using telekinesis to feel me up."

"Oh … Okay, what you gonna do about it?"

"Gonna do a spell seeing spell to try to catch whoever's doing it in the act, then do something horrible to them."

"Can I help?"

Willow thought about it, and said "We'll see."

--

"Tom, you're taking Daria out tonight?"

"I'd better be, the restaurant doesn't refund on cancellation," said Tom as he considered which tie to wear with his suit.

"I thought you were allergic to suits AND fancy restaurants," said Angier, fascinated to see his son dressing in smart casual of his own volition.

"Yeah, but, I feel like a change of approach. Haven't been able to talk to her in like, eight months now, so I'm going to want to spend the night talking to her."

After a little thought, Angier suggested "Maybe a couple of gifts to win her heart?"

"Oh, yeah, I got her the complete works of H.G. Wells," said Tom.

"Books?" asked Angier.

"She's a bookworm," said Tom.

"Okay … I went ahead and bought something for her," said Angier.

Tom turned to him looking skeptical about what his dad had for Daria.

Angier produced a velvet covered box and opened it, saying "Maybe she'd appreciate a piece of jewelry, even a bookworm has got to have some normal urges."

Tom looked at the emerald encrusted gold watch.

"Couldn't hurt. Thanks dad."

--

"Tiffany, whatever happened at school, surely you can't think it's an excuse for, well, smashing the place up like that, can you?" asked her dad.

Tiffany ran her fingers through her hair as she paced and said "I know, shouldn't have happened that way, should have just walked out and found something else to trash. … You know those re-education camps certain countries are famous for? That's what it felt like, science teacher was ending each sentence with 'proving God's hand in the shaping of the universe'. And the history teacher was quizzing us on the fucking bible, I mean, I'm no brain, but isn't that what the First Amendment was supposed to ban?"

"It is, state can't take sides in matters of religious expression," said Daria. she then continued saying "I was hoping to get my mom's law firm on side to challenge it, but they were on the side of the evangelicals. ACLU got picketed for trying to get the laws repealed, there were even spells cast to make everyone think that all the local ACLU representatives were a pedophile ring. Got those undone, but guess who cast those spells?"

"Who?" asked Tiffany.

"Give you a hint, they're multidimensional and seem to have their fingers in every pie, crooked or otherwise."

"Aww, those rat motherfuckers," said Tiffany.

"Who?" asked Mr. Deckler.

Daria made a 'Shh' gesture and looked around the house saying "they're classified, more than the usual stuff."

"But, they're evil," said Tiffany.

"So's just about anyone who wanted to rule a fascistic regime," said Daria.

"We'd better get looking for an agnostic school, now that all the public schools are now officially Christian. Oh, eventually found the letter from school and from the PTA, haven't exactly been high functioning since that little APOCALYPSE we seemed to have had," said Mr. Deckler.

Daria glanced at her watch and said "I'd better get on, meeting Tom in half an hour, kind of owe him for disappearing off the face of the earth with barely a 'sorry, can't talk' I didn't get around to saying."

"Good luck with that," said Tiffany.

--

Tom showed up at the Morgendorffer house with the book he selected for Daria, the Watch his dad had selected for Daria, the flowers his mom had selected for Daria, the aftershave Elsie had selected for Daria (Which made him smell like a girl, this aroused him. He wondered belatedly if Elsie was having a laugh, and then wondered how he became so naïve as to trust Elsie not to hit him with a prank.)

This would be tense. He wanted to win her back, but a lot of the stuff he was bringing was so over the top he wondered if he would instead end up driving her off screaming 'Psychotic, girlfriend-strangling stalker'.

Of course the way her life had gone: Getting busted, getting sent down, then getting some shadowy government job, that probably wouldn't be as much of a concern for her.

He had also seen Jane on TV, helping Tiffany and some British guy rescue the Griffin family from a Ku Klux Klan cell.

Seeing Jane in all that gear, camouflage face paint, leaf cape, silenced MP5, a bow and quiver full of fucking arrows …

He wanted to know what the fuck was happening to his two favorite girls.

He knocked on the door and waited.

Quinn answered the door and said "five minutes," before closing the door again and running back upstairs.

"No, that's fine, I'll wait outside," he said.

--

"Tom?" asked Daria.

"Yep, stay still," as Quinn returned to her position behind Daria, where she was working on Daria's makeup.

Since Daria and Quinn hadn't asked Tom what he'd be wearing, it was essential that Quinn configured Daria so her look would match as wider range of partner styles as possible.

Tom was dressed in a black suit, red shirt, and silver tie. Daria was already wearing a purple dress with black tights and black low heels, her hair was now in a pair of purple hairclips and a purple scrunchie, this would go with a grey jacket.

Quinn was just finishing up the mascara on Daria's eyes and after one last look, she said "Perfect."

"Okay."

"Better than that new outfit you seem to like, makes you look like a fucking spook."

"Quinn, I am a spook."

"Yeah, but even then you're not supposed to look like one," said Quinn.

"Okay," said Daria as she put her keys and wallet in one of her dress pockets, and her cell phone in the other. She then picked up the envelope she had brought home with her headed down.

--

Tom turned when he heard the door open and saw Daria and Quinn standing there.

"Why did you leave him out here?" asked Daria.

Quinn looked embarrassed.

"You've got a lot to learn about guys, Quinn," said Daria as she stepped out, asking "Your ride or mine?"

"Mine," said Tom.

He led Daria to his car, which was now looking extremely flash. Blue metallic paint, lifting doors, and from what Daria could see of the interior, it too was now looking flash.

"Parents got MTV to pimp my ride," explained Tom.

"Ah," said Daria.

--

Jane and Spike sat down next to Amanda in the plane and the pilot immediately proceeded to start the engines and request departure clearance.

"Gunn will meet us in Los Angeles, he'll help us raid the place," said Spike.

"Right, you've worked with him before, right?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, good man, aside from his involvement in the situation with Illyria," said Spike.

"How was he involved?"

"He signed a release paper to get her sarcophagus through customs in order to make the mental upgrade permanent, got addicted to being a skilled lawyer. It was lucky Winifred hadn't been infected, but he still felt pretty bad about it."

"Yeah, well, Stacy DID get infected, so he DOES have something to feel bad about. You said an upgrade, from what?"

"He used to head this gang that patrolled LA hunting vampires. Initially for self defence, but they then got genocidal, had a falling out with him and Angels crew. This was, of course, long before Angel's group took the management jobs at Wolfram And Hart LA. And ever since, he's been half and half vampire hunting and soliciting, mostly helping overturn wrongful convictions for capitol crimes or fighting censorship."

"Mild mannered lawyer by day, dark avenger by night," said Jane.

--

"A non-disclosure agreement? What do I need that for?"

They had just arrived at the restaurant and Daria had finally opened the envelope she had been carrying.

"Just in case you ask about work, and you probably will when I start explaining what's been going on with me over the past half year."

Tom looked at the document, then he shrugged and signed it.

Daria put it back in the envelope and Tom asked "So, how've you been?"

"Fighting the forces of evil, Joined an organization called the Watcher's Council, then that merged with the NSA and MI6 after that little war that happened shortly after Easter," said Daria.

"Watcher's Council … What do you watch?"

"Girls," said Daria.

"Girls?" asked Tom, suddenly questioning Daria's sexuality in his mind, "is this what it so far sounds like?"

"No … The girls are vampire slayers, mystically enhanced girls. It's a long story, but basically, these girls are employed as soldiers to fight mystical threats such as vampires. There's a whole load of developments about the Watcher's Council that doesn't make much sense, it used to be just one girl that was active at any one time, these powers, enhanced strength, combat macros, the ability to sense vampires. There was apparently no way to change this, or which of the potential slayers. Only certain girls can be enhanced in this manner, get activated."

"Okay, now, I know you've been practicing, but I can't quite tell: Are you joking?"

"No, straight up, check this:" Daria floated the candle in the middle of the table using telekinesis.

Tom waved his hand around the candle looking for wires.

He then looked under the table for signs of any kind of device that could be generating an alternating magnetic field to induce a current in the candle stand, but found nothing, he looked around the restaurant for any thing else that could indicate a technological means to pull this off.

Finally he asked "So, this isn't a wind up then, you're using actual, honest to god magic?"

"Yeah, took a while to develop this ability, but I'm able to precisely manipulate objects with my mind."

"Okay … So, what caused you to disappear like that?"

"I was wanted for involvement in a conspiracy to steal police property, I had to establish a new alias before I could have my robot self escape."

"Your robot sel- … When I visited you in prison, you're telling me that that wasn't you?"

"That's right."

"Okay, I notice you're using your own name and walking around like a free citizen now, what happened there?"

"The organization I work for struck a deal with the US and UK governments to keep ourselves out of jail, we're working for them."

"Doing what?"

"What we were doing anyway, except we also have to do what they want too. In the UK, that seems to be simply training UK forces to use magic. Over here, we have to investigate stuff with any mystical angle."

"Okay," said Tom, trying to absorb all this new information, and also weighing what he's seen and heard from Daria with what he used to perceive as reality.

--

"Jane," whispered Spike.

"Yes?" whispered Jane.

"Ever done it in an airplane toilet?" asked Spike.

"Never felt the urge to, but considering the size of the jet, it would be a touch obvious, don't you think?"

"Hmm."

Eventually spike said "Alright, I got nothing."

"What you gonna do, get her pregnant? I honestly don't care," said Amanda.

The two vampires looked at the witch, then they got up and went to the aircraft's bog for a bonk.

--

"Well, that's about it," said Daria, rounding off the explanation.

"Wow … … I thought it was drugs that made you run off like that," said Tom.

"Do I look like a stoner?" asked Daria.

"More like a Tweaker," said Tom.

"Cute."

"Erm … got some presents for you," said Tom, lacking anything else to say.

"Presents are good," said Daria.

"I got you the complete works of H.G. Wells," he said, as he lifted the parcel he had been carrying onto the table.

Daria almost smiled as she said "Excellent."

"A jewel encrusted watch," said Tom, as he handed her the smaller parcel.

Daria opened it and looked at it, saying "Keep talking."

Tom chuckled, and said "And … A load of flowers," he produced the bundle, saying "seemed like a bad idea to wrap these up."

"Thank you," said Daria, as she accepted the flowers, she then said "So, how have you been? Still going to Bromwell?" using a stereotypical posh accent in pronouncing Bromwell.

"They don't really talk like that there … I hope."

--

Jane and Spike emerged from the cubicle adjusting their clothes.

"Why did I think that would be more fun?" asked Jane.

"All the hype about the bleeding mile high club," said Spike.

"We'd have to be pre-teen to do that," said Jane.

"Are we there yet?" asked Spike.

"No, besides, sun's still up over there," said Amanda.

"Hmm, why does this world have to be round again?" asked Jane.

"Stupid gravity," commented Spike.

--

"So, ever been on patrol?" asked Chao Ahn.

"We're not really the patrol type," said Rebecca, as she accompanied Chao on their route to their sector.

"How was it when you learned you were a Slayer?"

" … Strange … Apparently me being a potential explains why I joined the army and progressed to the SAS."

"No sudden relocation into a strange land by someone who couldn't speak your language who spoke a language you couldn't understand, that kept giving you ice cream even though you had made it clear that you were lactose intolerant?"

Rebecca looked at Chao strangely and finally asked "Wha?"

"Never mind," said Chao.

"I take it from you accent you're not from around here?" asked Rebecca.

"China, just moved to shanghai when Giles showed up talking about the bringers and the First Evil and the watcher's council in broken Cantonese, getting most of it wrong. It got so creepy that I was desperately trying to figure out how to get away from him long enough to call the cops."

Rebecca chuckled, saying "My first impression of him was that he was a terrorist, and was desperately trying to figure out a way to kill him."

Chao looked at her darkly.

"That sounded much less disrespectful in my head," commented Rebecca.

"That's still not funny, I came to respect the man, even grew to like him," said Chao.

"I know, I'm sorry, didn't mean to-" suddenly she stopped with her fist raised, looking at a couple of people at the locked gates of the cemetery they were walking near.

They were around a gentle bend from them, so the people at the gate were unable to see them, whereas Rebecca and Chao could see their asses.

After they heard a loud bang, they heard a chain clatter on the ground, and saw them enter the cemetery. Rebecca waved Chao down as she and Chao dropped to one knee to reduce their profile over the tombstones.

Rebecca used her hands to illustrate the formation she wanted them to take around the people, then waved Chao towards the gate. She then raised herself enough to see where the intruders were facing, before dropping again and jumping over the spiked bar fence and landing on all fours on the other side, she then silently moved between the tombstones.

Chao proceeded as she guessed Rebecca wanted her to.

The two slayers were packing bows and arrows, carrying them in standard rifle bags, when Chao was in formation, Rebecca held her bag up to signal Chao to pull her bow and string it.

Rebecca pulled her bow from her bag and pulled at the pulley that would pull the string through the end of the bow until it latched, as the awkward force vector would defeat a slayer.

She then slung her quiver over her shoulder and glanced at Chao, who was showing the tip of her bow over the headstones signaling she was ready.

Rebecca nodded and waved her forwards, they tracked the intruders.

They saw the intruders looking around, but not closely enough to see the slayers.

The intruders grinned, and started … spraying?

Four people appeared around them, and the two intruders stopped what they were doing.

"What'ya doing?" asked one of the new individuals.

"Looks like we got a pair of Nazis here," said another.

"Hmm, hang on: Two Nazis, four undead kikes: I make that, transfusion O'clock, don't you?" said another, paraphrasing the adverts for Pimm's.

They then vamped out and grabbed the two Nazis, Rebecca pumped her fist a couple of times before popping up as she knocked an arrow, drew while picking a vampire, and firing.

Chao shot at about the same time as Rebecca had, the remaining two paused in their activity as they tried to locate the people that had caused their mates to turn to dust, that was the length of time it took for Rebecca and Chao to reload and fire.

The two intruders the Vampires had identified as Nazis stood there looking between the two slayers, they then settled on a course of action: Cheese it!

"OI! POLICE! STOP!"

The two slayers located two police constables tracking outside the fence to the gate, trying to intercept the Nazis.

Rebecca slung her bow along with her bag and made a grasping gesture at the Nazis, Chao nodded, and they each pursued a Nazi.

"Here you go," said Rebecca as she shoved the Nazi into the arms of the cop that had been after the one she caught.

"Thanks," said the cop.

"GET OFF ME CHINK-AAAOOOWWW!"

Rebecca looked amused at the one Chao had apprehended.

"YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE A LITTLE MORE POLITE TO MY CO-WORKER THERE, YOU'LL FIND YOU'LL LIVE LONGER FOR IT," shouted Rebecca.

"Right, now, if I may ask, what are you two doing here?" asked the cop.

"I can't discuss this, I'm Rebecca Gallagher, my co-worker is Chao Ahn, run a name check."

The cop finished cuffing the Nazi and grabbed his radio, saying "Sierra Oscar from 171, receiving, over?"

"One seven one from Sierra Oscar, go ahead, over."

"Yeah, can I have a name check please? Rebecca Gallagher and Chao Ahn, spelt … " he looked to Rebecca, directing the Mic at her.

"Charlie Hotel Alpha Oscar, Alpha Hotel November," said Rebecca.

"Over," finished the cop.

A few seconds later, the controller said "One Seven One from Sierra Oscar, the names Rebecca Gallagher and Chao Ahn are blocked, over."

"Received, out." He then took the Nazi and said "Come on, you're nicked."

--

Tom and Daria arrived back at the Morgendorffer residence.

"So, I suppose you got work tomorrow," said Tom.

"Yeah, but why don't you come in?" asked Daria.

They headed into the house, Daria placed the books on the sofa and headed to the kitchen saying "Just going to put the flowers in some water."

Tom waited in the lounge.

Daria eventually returned with the flowers in a vase.

"So, can we do this again, or stay in touch?" asked Tom.

"I'd like that … As you know, I'll be keeping crazy hours at unexpectable intervals, but I will try to keep in touch from now on."

"I really didn't mean to freak you out, it's just I did wondering what was happening to you."

"I know, I know, but I haven't really been the best girlfriend in the world, have I?"

"Iiiiii … suppose not."

"You still got that condom?"

Tom looked startled.

"No fucking about this time, I really do owe you, so, if you want me, you're guaranteed me."

Daria waited for Tom to make up his mind.

Tom eventually said "I don't want our first time to be just about favours, I want it to be about love."

"I know, and I do love you, the main thing keeping me from having sex with you was fear."

"Okay, and you're sure you want this?"

"Absolutely."

"Alright then."

"Okay."

Daria then led him upstairs.

--

"What were you two doing in that graveyard?" asked Reg.

"No comment," said the Nazi.

"Just some inconsiderate yob went and sprayed a load of swastikas and phrases such as, and I quote: 'Dodge this oven if you can' next to a devil, and 'Beg Hitler to piss on your burning soul, he won't but it'll be funny', we recovered the spray cans we believed were used to deface the gravestones, and Forensics are processing the cans to see if the paint matches that used to deface the graves, and to see if your prints were on the cans, do you have any response to this?"

"No comment."

"Well, then you will be charged."

"And what of that slanty eyed cow that roughed me up?"

"Who are you referring to?" asked Reg.

"Chao Ahn."

Reg and Tony looked at each other for a few minutes.

"Did you see an oriental girl?" asked Reg.

Tony looked at Reg and said "No."

"Hmm. Perhaps we should have the shrink look at him, he might be hallucinating."

"Or just outright lying."

--

"How many does that make so far?" asked Yvonne.

"Chao Ahn, Rebecca Gallagher, plus all the others, forty three so far," said Reg.

"All the names blocked, all packing various sharp weapons, some carrying consecrated water, and piles of dust everywhere we find them," said Roger.

"Here, I don't suppose you can add anything to this?" asked Reg of Sgt. Dale Smith.

"Not really, the powers that be have deemed that we don't need to know, being ex. Army, I tend to think we should trust them unless there's a specific reason not to."

"I still think we should investigate, discretely of course, but I would feel better if we knew what they were doing before we decide to just let them be," said Reg.

"Fair enough," said Dale, "but we will have to be discrete if we don't want our efforts disrupted."

The relief agreed to their course of action, then finished their drinks and decided to head home.

--

"Charlie Boy, how've you been?" asked Spike.

Charles chuckled as he greeted spike with a hug, saying "Spike, Man, how've you been?"

"Good, good, You've met Jane, and this is her mum, Amanda."

Gunn shook their hands and said "So, where's this happening?"

"Vail's place."

"Of course," said Gunn, considering the reason that they didn't say this on the phone. Wolfram And Hart had made it its business to have all twenty fat fingers and toes in every bent, stolen and crooked pie on Earth, including possibly the NSA. Mentioning Civus Vail on the phone would cause interference to occur.

"Do you know anything about what's happened with the place lately?" asked Spike.

"Yeah, Vail's next of kin inherited the place, he just stepped with into the role Vail had in the Circle," said Gunn.

"You said our memories have all been edited by this spell?" asked Gunn.

"Yeah, we uncovered it when trying to work out why Jane is pregnant."

"I thought Jane was supposed to be a vampire," said Gunn.

"I am, that's why we were looking for a magical factor."

"Oh, okay."

Amanda, Jane, Spike and Gunn got in the car and drove off. Luckily they had a hanger available to disembark in.

"Heard about that girl the Klan killed, she was a friend?" Asked Gunn.

"Yeah, well, only recently. Most the time we were growing up, she was just some brat to me. I didn't hate her, but we ended up in different cliques, she in the Fashion Club, and me … Well, I didn't really have a clique, but we were officially enemies. And in reality I found her amusing, dunno how she found me."

"When did you become a vampire?" asked Gunn.

"Just over half a year ago, of course if my mom wasn't a witch, I'd probably have killed everyone I care about by now."

"How did it happen?" asked Gunn.

"Some guy I scored with, got into blood play, thought it was just something kinky, turns out not."

"But once you got used to being super strong and able to sense things better--" started Spike.

"I freaked out initially, I was like, 'Fucking hell, I'm a vampire, what the fuck am I gonna do now?', you know, he could have told me."

"Would you have gone for it if he told you?"

Jane shrugged, and said "I don't know … I might have assumed it was part of the scene he was acting and still done it without knowing it would change me."

"Which kind of makes your anger at your sire redundant, dunnit?" asked Spike.

"Yeah, it does."

"So, Civus's son, what's he like?" asked Amanda.

"Malachi Vail, pretty powerful, gonna need some serious powers to do anything to him," said Gunn.

"Oh, I think we got what we need," said Amanda.

--

They arrived on premises.

The mansion had a section on its ass end that was obviously new, due to those two nukes Illyria had thrown at Civus in the dining room.

"What do we have on Civus's place?" asked Amanda.

"City plans, doubt they're accurate, and Illyria's maps from her own observations, which were in the areas we have plans for anyway, but that gives us furniture and items that wouldn't have been included on the plans," said Gunn.

"And this," said Amanda, as she produced a spherical flask with a small arrow floating within it, a purple glow pulsed around it at about a quarter of a hertz.

"Okay then," said Spike, "should be dark soon."

"Malachi did inherit Civus's army along with his mansion, feel up to that?"

Jane opened one of the bags they had brought, pulling out a minigun along with its support pack containing its magazine and CHP/Keroseneturborocketgenerator, saying "I think so."

Spike also pulled a minigun.

"Got anything I can carry?" asked Gunn.

Spike pushed another bag to him and said "An M246"

Amanda pulled her cell phone and called the people that would help her as Gunn pulled the M246 Minimi out of the bag.

"This is one of the good things about working for the government."

"Just like your legal skills are one of the good things about working for Wolfram and Hart," said Spike.

--

Malachi Vail was in the process of kicking ass in online Mechwarrior when he realized that it wasn't just the top of the range soundcard that was producing the sounds he was hearing.

"What the fuck?" he said as he paused the game and stood up, trying to work out where the sounds, which were really loud buzzes, were coming from.

One of the guards entered the room and said "SIR, TWO VAMPIRES, A WITCH AND A LAWYER ARE SHOOTING THEIR WAY UP HERE!"

This guard was then ripped apart by a burst of gunfire from behind.

Malachi then realized that the buzzes were muzzle reports from one of the vampires, a girl, carrying a minigun entered the room and started firing on him.

His shield was up well in time to deflect the bullets.

The other vampire entered and moved around him also shooting bursts from his minigun.

The witch entered, and checked her watch.

The female vampire looked to the witch expectantly.

Neither vampire was shooting at Malachi, and the lawyer was now in view, he was packing a light machinegun.

The witch drummed her fingers against her thigh as she looked around, looking antsy.

"Well?" asked the female vampire.

The witch checked her watch again and said "any second now."

"Any second now, we're gonna get our asses handed to us on a plate," said the Lawyer.

The female vampire slung her minigun and crossed her arms.

The male vampire rested his minigun over his shoulder and said to Malachi "Sorry for the delay, we will be kicking your ass shortly."

Malachi chuckled as he asked "What exactly are you doing here?"

The witch's head then snapped back as her eyes glowed.

Malachi realized what was happening and after briefly reassessing the tactical situation, he finally said "Aww."

The witch then pointed her palms at Malachi and Malachi was squashed into a singularity that promptly evaporated.

--

Amanda produced the spherical flask again, and saw the arrow pointing at a door in the back of the room.

Amanda opened the door with telekinesis and Jane entered ahead of her.

They found themselves in an absurdly large room for the available space.

"Trippy," commented Jane.

"Spacial distortion for you," commented Spike.

Amanda kept moving the compass side to side occasionally in order to try to work out their distance from the source of the spell was.

Jane started hissing and tutting the Dr. Who theme.

"Could you not do that please?" asked Spike.

Jane stopped, looking at Spike for an explanation.

"Annoying experiences I had with a sci-fi nerd," explained Spike.

Jane nodded and they proceeded in silence.

Eventually they got to a steel box.

Amanda put the flask away and tried the lock.

She couldn't get through, "There's a shield around this box, and I'm almost out of energy."

"Can we blast through?" asked Jane.

"Sure, if we had a couple of kilotons of TNT, but if we use too much, we could destroy the contents without reversing the spell."

"Jane, we are NOT setting off a nuclear explosion in the middle of LA," said Spike.

"Think you can deflect the blast away from civilization?" asked Jane.

"I think so," said Amanda, going through her gear.

"Okay," said Jane as she went through her gear.

Two kilotons translated to 17.64 micrograms, Jane assembled a number of pieces of paper and Amanda looked through her supplies for an appropriate shielding spell.

"We're still gonna get an enormous fireball," said Gunn.

"This place have a swimming pool?" asked Jane.

"It has a fifteen by five metre pool three metre deep, I'm not sure that'll do it for a two kiloton device."

"It'll be a smaller version of the Baker blast, I'm sure. Trust me, I know my math now," said Jane.

--

"Our main story tonight, a blast in Los Angeles, thought to be the work of terrorists using a swimming pool filled with trinitroglycerin, threw chunks of a building distances up to 500 metres from the hypocenter. The National Security Agency released a statement saying they were following leads, and were hopeful that they would have the suspects in custody soon."

--

"Why do I get the feeling that you three have something to do with this?" asked Donald.

"Because we were investigating the case," said Jane.

Jane, Gunn and Spike were in an office at the precinct that had jurisdiction over the area where the blast had occurred.

"Where's your mom?" asked Donald.

"Chasing up some leads, didn't say where. Just she'd call when she was done," said Jane.

"I see."

--

Amanda finished her preparations.

The box had contained an Orlon window, if shattered, those around it would remember a different reality.

The problem with it that was that if she shattered it, only those within sight of it would remember, and no one else.

So she was going to set it up so that when it shattered, everyone would regain their memories.

"Let the veil be lifted," she finished as she poured the 'shroom tea on it.

There was a flash, and she suddenly remembered some kid who had accompanied Jasmine around (Before Jasmine was revealed to be some sort of life sucking god of decay) and then had taken a bunch of hostages a year and a third ago.

The kid had then be knocked out and dragged off by Angel, CEO of Wolfram and Hart LA.

That was almost interesting, but only because of the trouble someone had gone through to cover it up, which brought her to the next question: Why has this been covered up?

--

"Whoa," said Tom as he suddenly paused.

"Did you-" started Daria.

"-Suddenly regain a bunch of memories that some magical spell had covered up for a year and a third for no apparent reason?" asked Tom.

"You did then."

"Yeah, that was weird."

"Yeah," agreed Daria.

Tom then shrugged and resumed fucking Daria in the leapfrog position.

--

Donald left the room, having been hit by the same lifting of the spell that everyone else on the planet had undergone.

Eventually Jane asked "Anyone remember a boy just over a year ago?"

"Yeah, that's Conner, and you're in trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"Conner was born from a vampire, vampire couldn't discharge him though her cervix, Caesarian wasn't happening either, Darla, the vampire that carried him to term, had to stake herself to save him."

"Darla? The same Darla I ran with?" asked Spike.

"Baby's soul influenced her, we didn't realize the shield wouldn't drop until well into labour, Jane, we need to talk to your mother about this ASAFP."

"Yeah, I guess we'd better," said Jane, looking horrified.

--

Willow walked into work in a trance.

She had to maintain this spell over the whole day if she wanted to identify the pervert that had been telekinetically feeling her up.

She started discussing the exercise she had arranged to use telekinesis in combat.

She suddenly felt her panties ride up into her slit, pushing into her vestibule, and upon looking down, she saw two ghostly hands manipulating her panties, attached to …

Willow stood up straight, and said "Corporal Gallagher, please accompany me outside, right now!"

Rebecca looked stunned, and everyone else looked confused.

"Staff," Rebecca acknowledged, as she stood up and followed Willow out.

They were eventually sufficiently far enough away in Willow's opinion to have this discussion without anyone overhearing, she turned around and asked "What in the name of FUCK do you think you're doing?"

"Staff?" asked Rebecca.

"While you were busy rearranging my underwear with your mind, I was running a spell that would allow me to see precisely that kind of tampering, so I ask again, what are you playing at?"

"Well, I started to fancy you, and I knew you were into women-"

"Especially women whose partner you shot? Yes, that's a real turn on, Gallagher, next time I date someone, I'll get them in an open top car, and drive by a book depositary after calling you with my schedule so you can assassinate her, then we'll go home and spend the entire night having hot passionate sex."

Rebecca looked stuck for a second, then said "Sorry, but I really do love you, I was just hoping I could get you to like me back."

Willow was stunned.

"You've got some serious mental problems, Gallagher."

Rebecca shrugged and said "Who dares wins."

Willow tensed every muscle as she fought down the urge to eject this nut case through every floor above her and throw her into the Thames, and ultimately said "get back to class, I'll be with you shortly, but you WILL not feel me up again in any way, or I'll rip your ovaries out of your body and force them up your nose and down your throat … … okay?"

"Yes, staff," Rebecca said as she returned to the class.

--

"Okay, that's a problem," said Amanda, having been told what Gunn knows of vampire pregnancies.

"Why the fuck was this covered up anyway?" asked Spike.

"I don't know, it was probably Angel who did it, since he's Conner's dad, and he was the one that had signed the deal, we stopped remembering Conner just before we found out from Angel that we had taken over Wolfram and Hart LA."

"Okay, can you think of anyone who might be able to add something useful?" asked Jane.

"Only possibilities I can think of are Wesley and Winifred … … There are a bunch of thins that Conner's presence precipitated, this bullshit prophecy for instance, made out that Angel was going to kill Conner, Wesley took the initiative and abducted Conner, then lost the baby when Justine, one of Holtz's followers, jacked him."

"Woah, slow down, who's Holtz?" asked Jane.

"Daniel Holtz was a vampire hunter Angel tormented while he was without a soul, Angel killed his wife and turned his daughter while he was diverted, Holts went out for revenge, conspiring with Sahjhan against angel, although Sahjhan was actually trying to kill Conner because Conner was prophesized to kill him, that thing with the Reilly's makes perfect sense now."

"Reilly's?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, this kid had to fight this demon, Angel went along with it for reason that weren't made clear, but why was this spell done exactly?"

--

Wesley and Winifred lay in the bed processing the memories they had just recovered.

Finally Wesley asked "What was that?"

"That was us remembering a reality that got covered up by a magical spell that made us all believe Conner didn't exist."

"Ah … what happened to it?"

"I don't know, we'll have to talk to Amanda or Willow, see if we can get an answer on that," said Winifred.

"I abducted Conner thinking Angel was going to kill him," said Wesley.

"Yeah, that was awkward."

"Tell me."

"Oh, shit, Jane," realized Winifred.

"I know, on it," said Wesley as he picked up the phone.

--

Part 2.

--

Everyone sat down in the briefing room.

Inspector Gold eventually entered the room and started off the briefing saying "Right, your attention please? Everyone shut up, thank you. Now, last night there was another call to a blocked name, I have been trying to find out what's going on, but surprise surprise, the defence secretary doesn't want to say anything, so we have to respect that and let them do what ever it is they are doing, okay?"

Reg raised his hand and asked "What if it's extraordinary renditions?"

"If you witness a crime, nick them, investigate until ordered otherwise, but officially, they are free to do what they like. I do know the ethical arguments, I've heard them all my career, but we have a job to do, and that includes the usual bad guys too, alright?"

Everyone nodded, and Gina got on with the rest of the briefing, covering various reports of criminal activity from last night.

--

"Extraordinary renditions?" asked Amber.

"Yeah, basically, torture's illegal in the US and UK, so the CIA sends its prisoners to be worked over in places where it isn't. But considering that makes the CIA guilty of depraved indifference and conspiracy, they might as well just save themselves the airfare and do it themselves," said Reg.

They headed off to the secure parking area to set off on their assigned patrol route.

Amber hummed the theme for 'the X-files' for a few seconds, Reg took no notice.

--

"We need to do a lot of work here people," said Henno.

This drew a round of "aww"s from the rest of the troop.

"Our tactics depend on speed and surprise, people, and we didn't have either. We show up at an operation doing that, the bad guys will be laughing, so cut the attitude, and get ready to go again!"

Willow may have formed the exercise, but it was Henno that was running it.

The killing house, where the SAS trained for clearing a structure of terrorists without harming hostages, where they had learned the techniques they had used to storm the Watcher's council last time the First Evil had hit them.

Usually they'd be running through the structure with MP5s, now they were running through the structure with throwing stars.

Throwing stars they'd telekinetically throw at the targets.

The difference between this and shooting was the number of moves needed, because with a gun, you point it at the target and push a button. Point and click. But with throwing stars, you have to pick one up, get it to a start position, and throw it. Doing that several times a second at more than one target was difficult.

But this was going to give them a backup weapon to their normal armaments, Willow was also training them to use shield spells, including instant TK shields, these would be developed until they can deflect bullets.

--

Buffy heard a knock at her door and said "Come in."

Aiden and Geoff entered.

"We need to talk," said Geoff.

"Hence you being here, what's up?" asked Buffy.

"We've been getting complaints from African governments about gangs of girls working for the British assaulting their people, I think you know exactly who these individuals are, care to explain?"

Buffy looked stunned and said "I'll have to look into it," getting a notepad and a pen, before asking "anything else you can tell me?"

"Yes, the governments complaining are Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, they are complaining that their security forces and civilian staff working for them have been targeted and hospitalized, and that if they aren't reigned in, they will take action."

Buffy wrote these details saying "okay, anything else?"

"Yes, how's it going with red troop?"

"Willow says they're progressing well. They have good telekinesis, have gotten several shielding, sleeping, and anti-poison spells down pat. She's going to start looking at teaching them astral projection soon, she's got them running an exercise cleaning houses with TK … cleaning houses?"

"You mean house clearing?" asked Aiden.

"Yeah," said Buffy.

"Okay, well, carry on," said Geoff as he left.

"I'll be back in a moment to discuss red troop's progress in a couple of minutes," said Aiden before he left.

Buffy then picked up the phone and called Dawn to initiate the investigation.

--

Tom woke as he felt something inside him release something, feeling alarmed at the seemingly uncontrolled manner of this discharge.

He sat up in alarm, and looked down at Daria, whose head was positioned over his groin.

He calmed down a little as Daria finished what she was doing and eventually said "hope you don't mind, but I thought I should make the swelling go down."

"I'll get over it," he said, he then asked "so, I suppose you have to get ready for work then."

"Yeah," said Daria as she sat up on her heels, taking his hands into hers, smiling at him.

"Last night was alright, yeah? You don't regret anything, or think I took advantage or anything?"

Chuckling, Daria said "no, relax, it was fine, in fact, I'd like to do it again actually, assuming you'd also like to resume our relationship."

"I would actually. Can we talk about this tonight?"

"Sure, let's get cleaned up shall we?"

--

Wesley and Winifred ate breakfast in silence. Last night's revelation had really fucked with them.

Wesley wanted to start a conversation about this, but he couldn't think of a way of doing this, he couldn't think of a way to start it. He had abducted Angel's son without discussing it with ANYONE!!!

He had thought it was absolutely the right thing, but what he had done to Angel was about the most fucked up thing he could think of. Oh, and it had turned out to be a scheme by this Sahjhan character who wanted Conner dead before Conner could do unto him, god what a fucking embarrassment that had been.

Of course when he was evicted from Angel Investigations, he was angry at everyone for not giving him a chance to explain his actions. Then he had realized they didn't have to be sympathetic, and that his anger was really that he had been so thoroughly suckered by Sahjhan and Justine, and had a near death experience (laceration to the carotid artery) thrown in for fun.

And oh yeah, he had then sought comfort from Lilah Morgan, one of Wolfram and Hart's unapologetically evil star lawyers, the same one that had more recently been involved in a plot to dissect a slayer (forcing Winifred to help).

Winifred tried to think of some way to talk to Wesley about their new memories.

But she couldn't think of any way to start this that seemed to be in any way respectful of the subject.

And how could she begin to discuss this with him after she had basically told him to never return to Angel Investigations while he was recovering from having his throat slit trying to protect Conner, and basically drove him into Lilah Morgan's arms.

It was amazing he hadn't gone dark side. She had been disgusted at him when she had learned about it, but she had quickly realized it was her fault.

She checked her watch as she continued to eat her breakfast. Eventually she finished and after placing her crockery and cutlery in the dishwasher, she said "We shout talk about this tonight."

"Afraid I'm going to be returning to the New York office today, Amanda will need as much help as she can get," said Wesley.

"Right," said Winifred.

"I'll try to get back soon," said Wesley.

Winifred nodded and gathered her coat, keys, and briefcase before heading out to Lockheed where she was helping them develop the weapons they would need to fight the cyborgs.

Wesley had been there helping them develop mystical systems for the weapons systems, but to be honest he could do this more easily from the New York office anyway.

Winifred needed to be close because of the intricacies of the engineering involved.

--

Daria and Tom, now clean and fully dressed, came downstairs and met with Quinn and Jake who were arguing about Tiffany.

"DAD, TIFFANY WAS ONLY DOING WHAT I WAS SORELY TEMPTED TO DO, THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH HER!"

"OH, YOU SAY THAT NOW, BUT WHAT IF SHE THEN TRIES TO GET YOU ON DRUGS TOO?"

"HEY!" shouted Daria.

"Oh, hi kiddo, you alright there?" asked Jake, suddenly acting calm as if he wasn't arguing just now with Quinn at 320,291,835½db.

"I take it you heard what happened at school yesterday."

"Yeah, your sister's friend seems to have turned into a violent miscreant," said Jake.

"Yeah, this wasn't unprovoked though, school system appears to have decided that the only way to prevent future disasters is to start giving God a rim job."

Jake shuddered saying "eeeeewwww-w-w-w-w-w-w-wwww."

"Of course, they have a particular god in mind, and have decided to adopt the one that commands us to learn fundamentalist teachings only."

"When did this happen?" asked Jake.

"Didn't you get a letter about it?" asked Daria.

"Letter?" asked Jake.

Quinn left the room and returned with a huge ass pile of letters, she sifted through them, ultimately finding one with a Lawndale High School logo on it, and handed it to Jake.

"How come you haven't had your utilities cut off?" asked Tom.

"Direct Debit," said Daria.

"Ah."

"I'm not exactly happy with the way Tiffany chose to express her dissatisfaction, mind, and you're both old enough to look for your own information sources, so I don't want the pair of you cutting class either."

"Daria, Tiffany's not going back, I don't blame her for not going back, but if she's not going to be there … who the fuck am I going to talk to?"

"You can't be the only student who feels the new curriculum to be stupid … er."

"Oh, believe me, I am, the rest of the students have bought it, lock, stock and two smoking barrels … Where did that phrase come from?"

"Firearms, rifles and muskets mostly, three main areas of a firearm are the lock, which is the component that on command initiates the propellant, stock, the bit that rests against your shoulder, and I think you know which bit the barrel is."

"Ah, right, I figured it was something to do with booze or something," said Quinn.

"Okay, well, I'm sorry, but the school's unlikely to take Tiffany back, and I don't see any good reason for you to abscond, you still want an attendance record when you go to college," said Daria.

"Damn it," said Quinn as she headed to her room to pick up her stuff.

"School shouldn't be able to do this," said Tom.

"That's right, we have a fucking constitution which prevents public schools from pulling precisely this kind of bullshit, the problem is that if there's enough people for an amendment, that could change. I'll see what our options are, this isn't a good situation, and I don't want to leave it as is."

--

"Our night jobs are basically, well, night jobs, we mostly only encounter vampires at night, but in principle, we're here to stop evil, right?"

Buffy thought about this, and said "Yeah, but getting arrested or wanted will heavily interfere with this."

"I'm with you there, but we're in a position to help, and no one else seems to have the will, so we're not going to let people just starve to death, we're going to get them out and deter the local Gestapo from future atrocities. Y'know, like that guy said, first they came for the Jews, and I wasn't a Jew, and then they came for the gas, but I didn't … err … "

"Yeah, okay, I'm with you on that, just try not to get caught, and try to get the blame shifted to some other assholes."

"Acknowledged."

Buffy then hung up.

That was everything, except South Africa had no complaints originating from it's soil, it was just rimming Zimbabwe.

The slayers fought the forces of evil. This was mainly vampires, but seeing the problems going on around them in Sudan, where the Sudanese authorities had basically gotten the Janjaweed to start driving people out of their homes.

'Driving people out of their homes' in this instance was a polite way of saying they were riding around setting fire to people's houses (mostly while the occupants were still in them), shooting people in the streets, wounding, torturing, raping, apparently with the support of the Sudanese government (Who were lying their asses off denying involvement).

And Zimbabwe, where Mugabe was basically turning the place into another North Korea, it wasn't the sort of thing you could ignore when you were in a position to do something about it.

This was diplomatically awkward, but frankly, this wasn't something Buffy was going to interfere with.

--

Daria entered Tiffany's room.

"Hey Daria."

"Tiffany," acknowledged Daria, as she took up a position in front of Tiffany. "I had to think about what happened at school yesterday, I mean, I know the new curriculum is extremely stupid, and that you have had problems, but the way you lost it in that class was not something I can support."

"I know, I know," said Tiffany, nodding.

"Your pay can cover a private tutor while leaving thousands a year left over for whatever else, but you can't get away with this kind of disorder, something like this in the field can get you and others killed."

Tiffany looked at Daria Quizzically.

"I'm sending you to work with New York's gangs unit. You will be infiltrating the Triads, you will help gather enough intelligence to bring known no less than forty percent of their known size."

Tiffany spent a few minutes considering the effect and said "This a Chinese thing? Just 'cos I'm Chinese, I'm an expert on the Triads?"

"You don't need to be an expert, you just need to look like you might be useful to them, they're a gang, they're going to want local talent. What you will need to learn, is how to memorize extremely fleeting details that will be needed to identify other gangsters, we're supposed to be spooks after all."

"Only because the Bush administration have us over a barrel, our task is supposed to be search and destroy."

"It's still a useful skill."

"That you're inflicting as a punishment. God, Daria, I'd have thought you could show a little understanding."

"Sorry, kind of out of that, blew it all on you torturing me, chasing Jane out of town, and raping my sister while making me watch."

Tiffany looked stunned.

"Like I said, I know you were having problems, and still are, but move the fuck on and sort yourself the fuck out."

Tiffany looked at Daria for a few seconds and said "Right. Where and when do I go to start this, slaying sabbatical?"

"Next Monday," said Daria, as she left.

At least she would be able to attend Sandi's funeral.

Tiffany fumed, but decided Daria had a point, she didn't have to be such a fucking hard ass about it, but …

Tiffany decided to go to the FBI to see what they had on the Triads in preparation for her new job.

--

"Hey Wesley, what's up?" asked Daria as she arrived.

"You're chipper," commented Wesley.

"Not really, Tiffany caused an incident yesterday, I had to think of something to punish her with."

"Oh, right, well, it sucks to do that, but discipline is important, there's something you're not going to want to hear though."

"What's that?" asked Daria.

"Jane's pregnancy. It's not unprecedented for a vampire to get pregnant, but it's fatal for the baby or the vampire, unless we can find a way of getting through that mystical barrier," said Wesley.

"Damn."

"What else has been happening?"

"Well, we think we have a location on the cyborg's base, and a theory as to why we couldn't locate Upchuck."

"Really?"

"Iron, mystical shield."

"Ah, right, so you used Magnetic Anomaly Detectors?"

"Using them soon, but we actually used NASA's oceanographical survey satellites, since he'd be electrolyzing the rust, and in fact, oxidizing the iron to scrub out the sulphur and other contaminants, the metal we're talking about is the cheap and nasty variety, so he's going to want to clean it up some before using it."

"Okay, so … of course, oxygen toxicity … except this seems like something Mr. Ruttheimer might know about," said Wesley.

"Yeah, but we don't really have any other clues, so that's what we're going with."

--

"There's no magnetic anomaly in the area," said Donald.

"Which means the iron's not being used in this area, it's being made there and immediately taken to the sites where it's being used," said Robodaria.

"How would he join the parts?" asked Daria.

"Probably MIG, some of the iron is made into wire form, they probably build up tons of helium from the power they're using for all of this. That's probably their shielding gas, now the question becomes do they hang on to it, or simply let it go?" asked Robodaria.

"I don't think we're going to be able to find them using waste helium, I think we're simply going to have to follow them from their foundry to their construction sites," said Daria.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't stick planes in that theatre, let alone big slow boats, even with a skeleton crew," said Robodaria.

"Well … no."

"What?"

"Well, I was going to suggest we make robots for this, but that could get expensive."

"Oh gee thanks," said Robodaria.

"We could try zombies though," said Daria.

"Zombies???" asked Donald, looking alarmed, "As in lurching rotting corpses that eat brains?"

"As in remote control corpses that can undertake complex tasks, and by the way, zombies tend to look pristine irrespective of their actual state of decay of the bodies used," said Daria.

"Okay, so what do you need?" asked Donald.

"I'll need to research this a little for ingredients and equipment, but aside from that, bodies."

"How fresh?" asked Donald.

"Any state will do as long as the limbs are all attached, but I'd prefer less than a couple of weeks, should be enough people dying without us needing to kill anyone," said Daria.

--

Quinn sat at a table on her own, eating her lunch.

Today's history had been a little more contemporary, but had still been extremely bent towards the fundamentalist ideology.

The Suffragettes were apparently 'a Satanist cult that had been out to destroy society though the guise of empowering women, using satanic rituals to cause their gullible recruits to shut out reason in place of a suicidal devotion to their twisted agenda.'

There had also been similar things said in that lesson about all female advancement movements since, calling them 'godless satanic witches whose disregard of gods will is starting to cause disaster now.'

Of course, just about every girl in that class challenged it, but the teacher had simply used cheap taunts to wind them up and 'prove that they have no ability to reason', while most the boys chuckled and cheered the teacher.

Quinn eventually finished her lunch and checked her watch, then she headed off to the principal's office.

--

"Come in," said Angela.

Quinn entered and said "I think we need to have a conversation about the new curriculum."

"What about it?" asked Angela.

"Well, for one thing, it's not too flattering about the abilities of women, or just about any of the feminist movements that have lead to you being able to get your job, why exactly are you going along with this?"

Angela looked pained.

After a while, she said "Because I have no choice."

"The Parent Teacher Association?" asked Quinn.

"If they all pulled their children out, well, not all, but enough to make this school pointless, I'd be out of a job."

"Okay … How many of the parents were female?"

"First thing I thought of, but they supported the proposed changes to the curriculum."

Angela looked disgusted as she avoided eye contact with Quinn.

"Since I started making an effort, I've learned that it's taken over a century of hard work under extreme, even deadly hostility to gain the human rights we were previously denied upheld in any sense, and the new curriculum threatens to wipe all of that out."

"Thank you, I know the stakes, Quinn, but what I need is ideas."

--

Jake was watching the news when Quinn stormed in.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THESE TWATS THINK THIS CURRICULUM IS ANY GOOD!"

Jake didn't respond -- he really didn't need this stress.

"AND I CAN'T BELIEVE DARIA'S SENDING TIFFANY OFF ON THAT DEEP COVER MISSION, DOESN'T SHE REALISE JUST HOW MUCH I NEED HER RIGHT NOW?"

Jake continued to focus on the news.

Daria arrived at this point.

Quinn pulled out some papers and said "Look at this."

Daria looked at the text.

Eventually Daria said "Okay, this should help," she turned to Jake and said "Dad, when's the next PTA meeting scheduled to take place?"

Jake was still trying to stay out.

Daria walked over to Jake and waved the papers in front of his face.

Eventually Daria said "Dad, you all right there?"

"A-OK kiddo!" he said with overboard cheer.

"Okay, we need to talk about how we're going to present this to the PTA the next time they meet, and since I'm not a parent, you're going to have to present it."

"Sure, that would be great, present a case to the PTA," he said, sounding like he was in his denial mode.

"Sounds like you have your doubts."

"I do, I know I pretend to keep on top of everything. But in truth, I can barely handle anything beyond the finances and running the house, and I've been out of the loop with anything connected to the PTA."

"Okay, I'll help you with this."

--

Tiffany was feeling extremely fucked off now.

On top of the fact Daria had decided to punish her with that Triad infiltration assignment. She had started making her learn how to do Glamours, SFX spells, so that in the event the Triads wanted her to kill anyone or inflict serious injury, she can look like she's doing it without actually doing it. It was also going to take some cosmetic surgery and some voice changes to just make her different enough to prevent her being identified from when she was on the news. She was also going to have to alter her fighting style since the world also got several minutes of her duel with Kirsty.

But the thing that was fucking her off right now was that there were no vampires to take it out on.

Punch bags don't fight back, they don't crunch, they don't give you much of a workout back, there's no feeling of accomplishment unless you see your target die.

Tiffany was looking around for things to break.

The problem she had with demolishing park furniture was it was … she just felt it was wrong, it was beneath her.

But she needed to-

"Hey Tiffany,"

Tiffany stopped and turned around.

"Finally found out your name."

"Yeah, well, remember it, you'll get a group discount when you go to hell," said Tiffany as she started approaching the vampire.

"Oh, I ha'n't heard that one before," said the vampire.

"Neither have I."

Tiffany glanced in the direction of the new voice and said "Kevin, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just hanging out with Barry here, he's cool."

"Kevin, he's a vampire, now fuck off."

"But I'm with him," said Kevin as he vamped out.

Tiffany looked at him for a couple of seconds, Barry was also approaching her, but was still five seconds out. Tiffany eventually said "Well, guess you're dying with him then," and turned to Barry in time to wrap her left arm around his right as she kneed him under the sternum before spinning him onto his back as she pulled a stake and tried to stab him, only for Barry to block her stake and kick her in the face, causing her to drop him.

Barry turned over and tried to bite Tiffany, but Tiffany blocked him. He had grabbed her stake hand preventing her from stabbing him, but she managed to get one knee under him, and she used her other leg to flip him over her. As soon as she was on top, she stood up, moving back to free her stake hand.

Barry flipped the other way.

"Wow, this is pretty cool," said Kevin as he watched.

"Yeah? You should see her in bondage, covered in dirt and bruises, cuts, puncture marks, you remember that, don't you Tiffany? My big, tasty cock in your mouth?"

Tiffany suddenly found her body was outside of her control as it ran at Barry, and started throwing punches.

Barry easily deflected her punches and commented "Oooh, touched a nerve there, or is that a clitoris?"

Tiffany eventually nutted him and he was thrown off his game sufficiently for Tiffany to get some good punches in.

"I didn't know Tiffany was a slut," said Kevin.

Tiffany then turned to Kevin and stalked up to him.

"My, we have touched a nerve, ain't we?"

Tiffany stopped, and realized she was considering the best way to express rage instead of the fastest way to waste the fuckers.

Tiffany pulled her swords.

"Alright, fine, we'll do this later," said Barry as he started skipping back.

"Eh?" asked Kevin.

"LEG IT, NOW, UNLESS YOU WANT TO BECOME A PILE OF DUST."

Kevin shrugged and both vampires ran off.

Tiffany felt her strength disappear and then she felt her eyes start to water.

"For fuck's sake," she muttered as she realized she wasn't going to be able to stop her eyes from doing this.

Tiffany sheathed her swords and found a bench to sit down on while she waited for her tear ducts to run out of tears.

--

"So, what's the history behind the two of you?" asked Kevin.

"I found her in a nest," said Barry.

"A nest, no way, the nest would have to belong to a … a tera … thingy."

"A vampire nest, Kevin, a place vampires select to sleep and … well basically squat in."

"Squat in?" asked Kevin, feeling confused.

"Nhh. … Anyway, I enter this nest because I smell this girl who's really afraid, and I get in there, there's Tiffany, tit and clit naked, arms tied behind her like this," he said, pressing his forearms together behind his back to demonstrate, "covered in cuts, bruises, fang marks, some dried jiz on her. Hair and skin looked like they had gone without any kind of hygiene measures of any kind for months, or possibly years, but I think any more than a few months she'd die of pneumonia or something. She looked absolutely adorable like that, oh, her neck was chained to the floor on the end of a long length of chain, like a dog tied to a kennel."

"Wow, didn't know she was into that," said Kevin.

"I don't think she is, all I knew was those vampires that had the nest were apparently keeping her alive, so I decided to leave her that way too. Drank some blood from her foot, she didn't struggle, just moved and moaned a little from the pain, she had been properly broken, you know?"

"And she let you do it with her?"

"Well, I didn't exactly get her permission, Kevin, we're vampires, yeah? Eeee-viiiillll? Yeah?"

"Oh yeah. … Wait, you're saying you raped her? Dude, that is totally not cool … "

Barry gave Kevin this pained look.

Kevin was engrossed in some sort of mental puzzle.

"Actually, it is kind of cool, didn't used to think that. Huh. … So, you did her?"

"Yeah, came back several times, always when they were out. Wasn't much of a conversationalist, but I'm sure I added a little bit more fear to her life. … Then one day after I had stopped for several weeks, I came back and found the place had been torched. Saw this gap in the floor beam where the chain had been, it smelt of her sweat, also the bits of rope that had been on her arms were lying there. I could only reach the conclusion that Tiffany had killed her captors and escaped."

"Wow," said Kevin, "How long ago was this?"

"Couple of years."

"Wow."

--

"Hey T."

Tiffany looked to her eight o'clock and said "Hey Faith," before she sat back on the bench.

Faith leaned over the back of the bench next to her and said "I heard about that Triad assignment."

"Oh yeah, the school acts like the 700 Club, and I'm the one who gets punished for justifiable losing it."

"Aww … … Wanna find something to hit?"

Tiffany chuckled and said "in a minute."

Faith sat on the back of the bench and swung her feet over, then she sat down next to Tiffany and said "There's something else wrong though, isn't there?"

"Yeah, when I was being held by those four vampires. There was this one other vampire, apparently named Barry, who occasionally entered their nest while the others were out, and did pretty much the same thing they did, I encountered him earlier, I should have been able to kill him."

"Ahhh," said Faith, "but you couldn't, you were so choked up with memories of fear and disgust that you were thrown completely off balance."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, happened to me too, piece of shit known as Kakistos. He killed my watcher, chased me all the way to Sunnydale, I'd been activated and I still couldn't engage."

"I want to kill that guy."

"I'll help," said Faith.

"I need to figure out where he is then," said Tiffany.

"What do you know about him?"

"Name of Barry, probably locally sired, he had Kevin Thompson with him, Kevin used to be a high school jock, he flunked out, and now he's a vampire too."

"Thinking Barry's Kevin's sire?" asked Faith.

"Probably."

"What's Kevin like?"

"Industrial grade thickshit."

"Sounds like Barry will be working alone then," said Faith.

"Thing is, I know nothing about this Barry, except he probably wants to play with me … shit," Tiffany pulled her phone and called her parents.

--

Kevin knocked on the door. He waited along with Barry until it was answered.

"Kevin? What are you doing here?"

"I kind of need to talk to you, can I come in?"

"No way loser," said Quinn as she closed the door in his face.

Barry looked at Kevin.

"She's just playing hard to get man, maybe there's an open window somewhere."

"Kevin, as a vampire, you need one of the people living in a private dwelling to invite you in, or you'll just bounce off of some sort of shield."

"Really? That's just stupid."

"Yeah, but it's an irrevocable fact, and we need to recruit someone she will let in to drag her out."

"Okay … but … "

"You're not about to tell me you don't know anyone?"

"Oh, that's not it, I know some guys, but what does irrecopical mean?"

--

"No contact," said Tiffany as she turned off her phone and put it away.

"Okay, where else could they have gone?"

"I don't know, Barry I have zero intelligence on, Kevin's about the stupidest person I have ever encountered. … Okay, Barry wants to come after me, he'll want to know all he can about me from whatever sources are available to him, and right now, that's Kevin, so what does Kevin know about me? …" a couple of seconds later, she winced and said "He knows I hang out with Quinn," as she pulled her phone and called Quinn.

--

"Kevin's a vampire? Well, makes sense given what a loser he is now I suppose, he came round here earlier asking to come in."

"Tell me you didn't invite him."

"Of course not, he's a loser, remember?"

"Okay, good, but right now we need to work out what Kevin is likely to suggest to his sire, Barry."

"Barry?"

"Yeah, he visited while the other vamps were out, I was hoping I'd eventually take him out myself, but I boned it, so now I gotta find him again."

"But if you failed before, what's gonna be different this time?"

"I got Faith with me."

"Oh, okay, happy hunting."

"Thanks, and keep safe," said Tiffany.

--

Daria completed the spell and suddenly every corpse in the hanger sat up.

"Okay, now to find out weather or not the corpses will do as I say," said Daria before shouting "ALL ZOMBIES, ASSEMBLE BY THE FRONT DOOR, THREE ROWS, MOVE IT!"

The corpses all ran to the front of the hanger using their arms to space themselves in a three by sixty grid.

Daria followed them, pleased with the results, she asked "DO ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH SUICIDE MISSIONS?"

None of them raised any objections.

"Okay then," Daria looked over to where the Navy officers were standing. The officers looked a touch nervous about the fact that they were looking at reanimated bodies, Daria then turned back to the zombies "These guys are going to teach you how to run a battleship. You have seventy two hours to learn your jobs before you will be flown direct to the ships where you will replace the crews and survey the areas around you. You will be gathering as much data on the cyborgs we've been chasing and passing it on as quickly as possible. You'll probably be destroyed in the process as the cyborgs become aware of your activity."

The zombies had no response.

"You all understand the orders I have given you so far?"

"Yes ma'am," the zombies chorused.

Daria then turned to the Navy officers, who were staring at Daria like she was pointing her USAS12 at them, and said "All yours," before leaving the hanger.

--

"This has only happened twice that we know of, I'd be surprised if we find anything," said Wesley.

"You keep saying that," said Jane.

"Yeah, well, it does present a real problem, most magics only work from a specific combination of components, it's not like engineering where you can just use math to make whatever you want," said Amanda.

"I seemed to come up with that spell that turns arrows into energy just fine," said Jane.

"How did you do that by the way?" asked Wesley.

"I took a couple of spells and fused them, you have to put the material in stasis first, then you do the transmutation."

"Bit dangerous, wasn't it?"

"Didn't turn the first objects into energy, turned them into medium carbon steel first."

"Medium carbon steel?" asked Wesley.

"String's cheaper than welding wire, you know how much of that I go through in a week?"

"I see," said Wesley.

"It occurs to me that this is probably simpler than we think, what if all we need to penetrate the shield is something of equal hardness?" suggested Jane.

"You mean like using diamonds to cut diamonds?" asked Wesley.

"Exactly," said Jane.

"Magic doesn't quite work like that," said Amanda.

"Yeah, it's multidimensional to say the least, you got more flavours of magic than you have quar … "

--

"You do realize that Donald won't take too kindly to me taking time off the AWE project," said Winifred, who had answered the phone in the middle of machining a reflector system for a pipe shaped laser core.

"I understand that, but Jane's baby will need to emerge eventually, and I really don't want to see either the baby dead or Jane a pile of dust, is there anything I can do on my end?" asked Wesley.

Winifred looked up at the ceiling for a moment and said "Well, I've been working on ways to detect dark matter, but as I've mentioned, it's proving difficult to crack. I'll get there, but if we want access to the equipment and to avoid obstacles such as serving multiple life sentences in some prison that our government outsources just because it's apparently illegal to torture prisoners around here."

"That doesn't stop them."

"Limits which methods they can use, they still have to get away with it."

"The Abu Ghraib screws didn't adhere to any limits."

"The Abu Ghraib screws were exceptionally stupid."

"Hmm, anyway, any help you can render here."

"Yeah, on it."

Winifred hung up and went back to the lathe. It had finished the reflector, and the splash/shrapnel guard opened up for the robot to unload the reflector as the lathe's chuck opened.

Winifred inspected the mirror. The mirror was perfectly smooth, this particular lathe had grinding and polishing tools in it's carrousel.

She took it through to the test mount. It fitted over the front of the pipe shaped laser. She then put on her LCD visor and announced she was about to fire it up. The laser activated, causing the ceiling to fluoresce.

"Okay, powering up the coil," said Winifred as she slowly turned the control that would lift the part of the transformer core out that usually shorted the magnetic circuit.

Slowly a ring became visible over the mirror, the ring extended and tapered.

"Plasma ignition," noted Winifred, keeping in mind that she had to keep the bursts short or they'd start to get harmful nitrogen dioxide levels. She opened the throttle even more and turned it on again.

The ring was this time intensely bright and the visors light activated sensor activated.

The brilliant cone where the plasma was being pushed away from the coil and being confined by the induced magnetic field was almost pure white, the next bands of colour get less bright as the plasma cooled.

Gas spectra worked in the opposite direction to how candescent radiation worked, all your high energy radiation occurred first because your electrons jump furthest first; the next jumps tend to be much smaller and therefore less energetic.

Winifred turned it off and opened the throttle completely and tried it again for half a second, there was a loud shriek as the plasma stream went supersonic, the shock diamonds were barely visible as the glare started to exceed the opacity of the LCD visor, she then shut it off.

She looked up. There was some dark brown smoke high in the room, but that was being sucked into the air conditioning ducts, shouldn't be a problem.

"We have our thruster system, just need to figure out how to make a coil light enough that won't vaporize," said Winifred.

She had done the math and found that normal inductors just can't provide the thrust needed. The saturation was just too damn low, it was going to be an air cored inductor to remove that ceiling, so that just left the current, which had to be about 10,000 times more intense than what it would have to be to give you what you get with a silicon steel core.

That meant making some kind of superconductor system, and even then, it's a bit shit, unless you can do better than 156kA/m. "So, what are the cyborgs making their coils out of?" She asked.

--

Part 3

--

"Okay, we've tried the Rowes, the Thompsons, the Griffins, the Morgendorffers, and the entire football team, what else?" asked Faith as she and Tiffany walked down the street, having searched all night without success.

"I don't know, I'd rather not wait until night again, I hate having to wait for these guys to come out to feed."

"Know what you mean, on the plus side we can now legally use incendiary grenades, I could marry your watcher for that. … Well, if she was gay, and if I were gay too for that matter, and if this state allowed gay marriage and hadn't gone religious stupid mode."

"Yeah … "

Faith picked up on Tiffany's drop in enthusiasm for discussion on the subject of her watcher, and asked "Things okay between you and Daria?"

"Nah, I mean, she's been alright mostly, but lately, she's been getting increasingly stern."

"Something getting to her perhaps?"

"Might be the school situation, Daria's a card carrying brain, so seeing the education system take this turn would really wind her up."

"That is annoying her, but no, something's off, but … … Ahhhhhh, maybe something about the job's turning her into an asshole, could be Donald getting on her case more than usual," said Tiffany.

"Ah yes, I believe Andrew described him as a cross between President Clark off of SG1 and Senator Kinsey off of Babylon 5," said Faith.

"I'll take your word that you're describing a pair of twats, I need to get back to my magical training," said Tiffany.

"All right, well, I got nothing else going on … Tiffany, we're Special Agents in a shadowy government organization now, aren't we?"

"Yeah?"

"How old would you say this Barry guy was? Did he give the impression he was older than the invention of the camera?"

"No … SHIT!!!"

--

Willow got home and said "Gwen, I'm Home."

Not getting a response, she headed through to the kitchen.

No notes or anything.

Must have a vengeance gig on.

This made Willow uneasy, she remembered when Anyanka was a vengeance demon, she did some truly nasty deeds, the one that had caused Buffy to engage her was the one where this girl that got dumped by her boyfriend in the middle of a frat party (specifically crafted to enhance her humiliation) caused the girl to wish they "Knew what it felt like to have their hearts ripped out."

Anyanka's solution: Call forth a bunch of Grimslaw demons to waste the fraternity.

And anyone else they happen to wander across.

Buffy had to kill Anyanka, Xander had tried to stop this, hoping to find another way of doing this (Couldn't blame him, Willow was far from happy about having to inform Buffy of the situation knowing what Buffy would have to do).

Of course, Anyanka had been human long enough to finally decide to do the right thing: Undo the damage even if it meant she would die in the process, but D'Hoffryn decided it would be funnier to slot Halfrek instead.

Halfrek was one of Anyanka's closest friends, and her death was the worst shock imaginable for Anyanka. Willow was sympathetic, although Anya and Halfrek were just friends, it was still not the kind of pain Willow would wish on anyone.

Well, there were some people, First Evil for instance, but there's no real way of doing that.

Gwen would definitely be taking vengeance for something or other, and the results could be a whole load of dead people. And one day, Willow could be called upon to kill her.

What the fuck was she thinking? Getting into a relationship with a vengeance demon?

--

"Barry Yohansen, age fifteen, missing, wanted in connection with the murder of his parents, found deceased in his home with puncture marks to their necks. This was in Washington, that makes finding the guy in Lawndale even more difficult than it was before," said Tiffany.

"Interests were football, baseball, hockey, ice hockey, American football, business studies, bland much? Who'd sire this guy?"

"Interest in sports ought to explain why he sired Kevin, but something's at odds here, why wasn't he talking sports when he was making conjugal visits?"

"What did he talk about?"

"The artistic aspects of my situation, I just took it for normal vampire crap."

"Did he know you were a potential slayer?"

"No."

"You were just another victim to him, that could be our angle."

--

"That's my sire," said Jane as she looked at the print out.

"He tell you anything useful?" asked Tiffany.

"Not offhand, but I know his scent, I should be able to find him for you, draw him out," said Jane.

Tiffany had explained to Jane what this guy had done before showing her the printout. Jane had stopped being mad over being turned, but now she was really mad with this asshole for what he had done to Tiffany.

"He's turned Kevin too, so-" said Tiffany.

"WHAT?" asked Jane.

Tiffany was about to continue when Jane suddenly smiled uncontrollably.

She was then laughing her ass off.

Spike and Tiffany stared in disbelief, Tiffany eventually said "She has a point."

--

Daria entered Donald's office and said "Zombies are on schedule, should be able to deploy them soon."

"Okay, what do you propose we do when we find the bases?"

"Frankly, nuke 'em. It'll be underwater and next to most undersea geological activity, this'll be an earwig's fart. Couple of Minutman's ought to do it, but the Skybolt's been sufficiently developed since I last heard, I'd go with that instead, less likely to be seen by the public," said Daria.

"Official use of nukes requires presidential authority, but if no one sees us doing it, that shouldn't be a problem. And we have developed the Skybolt further, Fred's nukes have allowed us to pack in a lot more firepower and improved the impact tolerances of the weapons. I'll talk to the president about it."

"Okay, thanks … I'd also like to apologise for the attitude I've been giving you in the past, you didn't deserve that, and I'll do better from now on."

Daria then left.

--

"See this asshole?" asked Spike.

"No, but he's changed tactics, hasn't he?" said Jane.

"What do you reckon?" asked Spike.

"Walk and sniff," said Jane, as she headed out of the Zon.

--

"Dr Smith, how did it go?" asked the duty nurse for the wing.

Gwen shrugged and said "still not having a lot of luck, Cathy's still in a world of her own," 'and having trouble wishing that vengeance she so sorely desires.'

"She's a strange one all right, can you believe she passed for a cop for two years? Here's me basking in confidence," commented the nurse.

Gwen's amusement at how she was successfully passing as a doctor while the head nurse was calling the cops stupid for being fooled by Cathy could easily be mistaken for amusement at how stupid the cops were, and so she went with it.

"Might have better luck tomorrow, goodnight," she said as she headed out.

She wondered what Willow would make of her efforts to coax vengeance wishes from the seriously disturbed like this.

--

"Thank god that's over, why do I keep getting paired with Reg?" asked Amber as she and Honey headed out from the station.

"Because-" started Honey.

"-Gina Gold's a sadistic cow cunt? Sounds right," interrupted Amber, leaving Honey looking a bit annoyed. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"Find something to hit?" suggested Honey.

"What, more work? Fuck that, let's find some blokes and get drunk with them."

"And wake up in stringent bondage with no memory of how we got there, followed by a couple of days of torture and get found dead, floating in the Thames," said Honey.

"You're such a sourpuss lately Honey, what's gotten into you?" asked Amanda.

Honey opened her mouth to respond, but decided against it. Amber may be a twat, but Honey just couldn't bring herself to have a go at her. That's what sergeants and inspectors were for, and look what that yielded. She eventually said "nothing, let's get drunk."

They got halfway to their chosen pub before they heard two people run up behind them. Two boys, late teens, wearing hoodies (one blue, one grey) and jeans, one said "where you ladies headed?"

"Somewhere you're not, I mean, really," said Amber.

"Easy Amber. We're headed to the Canley arms," said Honey.

"Honey, get a clue, they're total babies," said Amber.

"You saying we're not man enough for you?" asked one.

"Now you've picked that up, fuck off," said Amber.

"Well, we'll just have to see if we're demon enough for you then," said the first one.

They then morphed their faces somehow into this armoured, ugly ass face with yellow irises and extended canine teeth, and grabbed at Honey and Amber.

Honey deflected the arms of her attacker, kneeing it under the sternum and nutting him, then punching him in the chin with her palm, before glancing at Amber, who was not doing as well (standing there screaming while the … whatever it was leaned in to her neck.)

Honey kicked it in the back of it's knee and used an elbow strike to the back of its head, this allowed Amber to escape it's grip.

Amber, wearing high heels, tripped as she moved back and fell on her ass.

Honey had to return her attention to the first one again, as he was now on his feet again. She gave the other one a kick as she moved away from Amber, hoping to keep their attention away from her.

She beckoned the second one to attack her, hoping he would stay on her and leave Amber.

The first one ran at her trying to get a punch in, only for Honey to kick one of his knees sideways and get a palm strike on the side of his head. She was reluctant to use such moves as they could easily kill someone, but she was certain she and Amber would die if these things weren't neutralized.

The first one went down, but the second one got in, wrapping it's arms around Honey's waist and tipping her backwards. Honey jumped with the force, flipping over completely, causing the creature to lose it's grip on her. She then punched him in the face with one palm, kneed him below the sternum, third palm strike was followed her knee, other knee struck his ribs. She then used a palm strike to the side of the base of his skull, this sent him down.

She held her position, watching the creatures.

Amber just sat there like a tramp.

"Amber?" asked Honey.

Amber looked up at her.

"Call Dispatch."

" … Right," said Amber, as she fished out her phone from her pocket.

But the creatures got back up, one saying "No, that's cheating," as he moved to Amber.

Honey grabbed his head, using his eyes to pull him backwards. The other one came at her again, she moved to use her palm to punch him in the face, but he deflected the punch, trapping her arm. She used her knee in his ribs and nutted him, the other one was on his feet again. Honey used an elbow strike in his face, then under his sternum, then she skipped up to the other one spoofing another punch before kicking him in the face. She succeeded in drawing them both off of Amber, who was struggling to dial the emergency number.

"Yo, this a private party or can anyone join?" asked an obviously American voice.

Honey glanced over to two girls, an IC1 in her mid twenties and an IC3 in her late teens were running up to them.

Honey was about a hair away from using a profanity now, "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"No, they can stay," said one of the creatures as he approached the two new girls.

Honey went for him, the other went for Honey. Honey responded immediately by deflecting one of the creature's arms and crushing it's trachea with a fingertip strike. She was about to go after the other when the other turned to dust.

Honey was stunned for a few seconds, the IC3 girl was holding a wooden stake.

The IC1 girl had moved in on the remaining creature, Honey watched as she drove her own stake through the creature's heart.

It too turned to dust.

The two girls twirled their stakes and put them in the waist bands of their trousers.

After a few seconds, the IC3 girl asked "You two okay?"

"Uh, yeah," answered Honey, she then asked "Amber?"

Amber was still lying on the floor, hyperventilating.

Honey then looked back at the girls and said "We're fine, can I have your names please?"

The two new girls looked at each other.

"This is the scene of an incident you know," said Honey.

"No it isn't," said the IC3 before she started to walk away.

"We were never here," said her friend, joining her.

"Best get your friend home."

"Sorry, but we can't," said Honey as she produced her warrant card, she then said "I'm PC Harman, this is PC Johannsen, we're going to need your names."

The IC3 indicated herself saying "Rona Whedon," and her friend saying "Vicky Head."

Honey instantly remembered the names and said "Right, never mind," before helping Amber to her feet.

"What do you mean Never Mind? Surely we should be asking more questions," she then asked Rona "what are you doing out at this time of night carrying offensive weapons with you?"

"Amber, their names have come up before, remember?"

Amber tried to remember.

Rona said to Vicky at this point "I give you, the thin blue line."

Honey just said "Right, thanks for helping us out there, I'll just get the nick embarrassment home now."

--

Jane suddenly caught a whiff at her ten o'clock position, it was coming from an open space at the end of a row of houses dotted with trees and backed by a forest.

She stopped and looked around.

She started her approach to the source.

As she approached, she noticed another smell creeping into the mix.

This smell was highly familiar to her because her house still hummed with it since Daria had lived there making her weapons: RDX.

"Oh-kayyyyyyy," she said as she turned around looking for an OP.

Spike, Faith and Tiffany were spread out in a line heading off from whence she had come. But if this guy was using his scent to lure her into a trap, he had to be upwind of that.

He would be beyond the killing zone.

Jane signaled for Spike and Tiffany to converge on her location.

When they got to her Spike said "What's up?"

"I smell Barry."

"Really?"

"And RDX. Here's what I propose, Spike, you and I split and converge beyond where I think the killing zone is. Tiffany and Faith should split up and go that way," Jane indicated two directions going the other way, "Faith and I will then converge on her after we're out of line of sight. Spike, you'll actually get to the area over there. If you see him or his probable location, continue on and call me when you leave line of sight, then we'll all converge on him, got that?"

Everyone nodded and headed off in their various directions.

--

Spike emerged on the other side of the forest into a clearing extending twenty metres from the back garden fences of a row of houses and looked around.

Barry knew Tiffany had Jane, why else would he bait the killing zone with his scent?

He might not have known that Jane knows what RDX smells like, although if he had been near her house, he could smell it every time he was there.

That wasn't the proper trap.

Did he also know Spike was with Jane?

If he did, he might have been a bad choice to send up here.

Slayers can sense vampires, but this is due to a mystical field and the sensitivity is highly limited, you don't get a significant spike beyond 7-10 metres.

Those houses would not make suitable observation points, the guy had to be in the forest somewhere.

He could be in an elevated position, that meant he could be anywhere with respect to the killing zone. If he was high enough, his scent would not be pulled down by turbulence as much as it would be on the ground, that begged the question: What was his precise objective? He wanted Tiffany, but Spike doubted he wanted her dead. He probably knew Tiffany was a slayer, having been in a fight with her, so he could inflict greater injury on her than a normal person to capture her.

That meant the device or devices best suited for the trap would be fragmentation or sedative, sedatives could end up higher in the air though, but since vampires don't need oxygen, he could just wrap himself in plastic.

Frag would require line of sight throughout the killing zone, multiple devices could cover the area sufficiently, projectiles could be anything from 10mm gravel to floor nails.

Spike decided to call Daria.

Eventually Daria answered saying "Spike, what's up?"

"Yeah, I'd like your opinion on something. I'm chasing a vampire who set up explosives with the intention of incapacitating a vampire slayer, I was wondering if you had an opinion on how this guy might use the explosives?"

"Do you know if the vampire is using proper detonators?"

"What's the other option?"

"The other option is to have the explosives cook off, that is, heat them until they spontaneously detonate, but that method offers less control, if this guy has electric detonators and det chord, there are more options."

"What's in det chord?"

"Usually trinitrotoluene or Pentaerythritol tetranitrate."

"Ah, I know what TNT smells like, I've never even heard of … penta fairy Tetley nitrate, the killing zone appears to be in the middle of a forest."

"If I were this guy, I'd probably set up sedative warheads on bursting charges, that would fill the air and probably be on you before you figure out what you saw. But there are problems, you need to have the expertise of an anesthetist. If you just want them unable to walk and don't care that your targets are wounded, an alternative would be to set up fragmentation devices everywhere. The velocity of most high explosives is high enough that you can point the shrapnel wherever you want it to go and be reasonably certain it'll go where expected. If you can score any explosives, you can usually score enough to create a sizable killing zone, the limiting factor's the number of detonators you have."

"And the shrapnel?" asked Spike.

"Probably whatever's to hand, gravel's the cheapest, but the best easily available shrapnel would be wire nails, you can make walls of them around the charge, and have around three and a half times the density of gravel, maybe add an anticoagulant such as commercial rat poison to enhance blood loss, depends on how much thought he'll put into it," said Daria.

"Okay, thanks a lot," said Spike.

"No problem."

--

Tiffany was walking along her route, wondering how long it was going to take for one of them to find Barry.

It was extremely embarrassing to be facing this guy after she had been made to blow him, he wasn't a major feature of her nightmares or flashbacks, he was just an opportunistic twat.

That didn't stop him being a threat in the here and now, and it's not like these guys have anything better to do. Often vampires when sired leave normal society, becoming vagrants, squatting wherever, attacking people for fun.

That's not always the case of course, lots of vampires also live fairly normal lives, working normal jobs. It seemed to depend on the circumstances of the vampire as it is sired.

Something bounced off her right hip.

No it didn't, it punched through.

Stupid delayed sen- "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Tiffany collapsed as she felt the area around the arrow stuck in her hip felt like it was catching fire.

She removed the arrow and noticed the smell of burning flesh wafting up.

This was followed by a puff of flame out of the wound.

She patted out the flame, and noticed the physical heat coming off the wound was ridiculously intense.

She looked up as she heard someone land on the floor and saw Barry straighten up and approach her, laughing, as he pointed his crossbow at her. The loaded arrow had a glass capsule on the side.

"That's sodium. Don't worry, it won't enter the bloodstream, it's searing the flesh around it. But that caustic soda will need to be dug out soon, or it will corrode through," he said.

Tiffany was about to reach for a stake she had concealed in the back of her trousers, but decided against it for now. She said "Okay, you got me, now what?"

"Now, Tiffany, you're going to amuse me, but not before my buddies bring us the body of your slayer friend and … well, I guess it's difficult to bring something to prove the death of a vampire. But once we're all assembled here, you're going to strip off for us, and fuck each of us, or you get to experience death by caustic soda poisoning."

Tiffany fumed as she reassessed her options.

Option one: Attack the guy hoping he'll miss. He probably won't at this range, but he wouldn't have to shoot as she would be unable to fight with that hole burned in her leg anyway. He'd probably just beat the crap out of her and stick to the original plan.

Option two: Arouse and fuck a bunch of vampires, and become their slave for however long it takes for them to get bored of her.

The rage and nausea flared inside her as she remembered how that was like the first time, no way did she want a repeat of that.

That meant her only hope was that Faith, Spike and Jane could avoid Barry's friends, whoever they were.

"How did you get out the first time anyway?"

Tiffany wasn't going to answer that, she might need to do the same thing again.

"Asked you a question, slut."

Tiffany wondered if there was any safe way to misdirect this asshole, then eventually said "I had help."

"Really? Who helped you? I got the impression you were alone."

Tiffany didn't answer.

"Looking forward to some more red hot steaming sexy action?" he asked.

Tiffany still didn't respond.

"Talk to me, slut."

"About what? Eh? What the fuck, would I want to talk to you about?"

"Do I care what you want?"

"Back at ya," said Tiffany.

"You will care what I want, just like you used to, eh? Remember that? Which hole did you like me fucking the most? I know I liked using your asshole, and your mouth wasn't bad either," he said, recalling how he had her lick her shit off his penis.

"You're going to die."

"Oh am I now? How you going to do that?"

"It's a surprise," said Tiffany.

"What you mean is you have no way of killing me and don't want to expose this fact."

"If you like to think that, sure."

"What about Kevin, your school's quarterback? You must have fantasized about him a lot."

"I'd sooner turn gay, and that's when he was alive," said Tiffany.

Barry chuckled and said "I'll tell him you said that, and let him soften you up," just before his phone rang.

He pulled it and answered it, "Hello?"

"Hi, I'm from the Schwartz herbs and spices company, I'm conducting a survey, do you use our brand of garlic powder?"

"No, fuck off, I'm expecting a call," said Barry as he hung up.

"Hmm, telemarketers, huh?"

"Yeah, I might have subscribed to Asian Torment if I had given up on finding you again," said Barry.

"Call that a taunt? Come on, man, step it up a little."

"Alright, this time, your captivity will be filthier than ever, gonna slap you silly, torture you out of your mind, turn you into the worst emotional wreck ever made. And now you're an active slayer, the number of things we can do to you have expanded. You thought it was bad before, imagine being ass fucked while you're lying there with no intact bones? Imagine getting your fractured ribs moved around while everyone's cumming on your face?"

"Weak," said Tiffany.

"No, you're just trying to get me to spare you with a quick and clean mercy killing, well, that's not going to happen."

There was suddenly a noise off to Barry's left, he brought his crossbow to bear on the source of the noise.

Then there were a series of gunshots from behind Tiffany that struck Barry in the elbows.

Barry dropped the crossbow as he cried out in pain.

"Made you look," Jane said.

"You alright Tiffany?" asked Faith as she emerged from behind, aiming a Jatimatic at Barry.

"Yeah, apart from an arrow wound that got contaminated with SODIUM!" said Tiffany as she stood up and approached Barry.

Barry stepped back, unable to use his hands to pick up the crossbow.

"He looks a little strong kneed to me," said Tiffany.

Faith kneecapped the vampire.

Tiffany then pulled a can of lighter fluid out of her pocket saying "I apparently don't have the time to come up with a really elaborate punishment," she picked up the crossbow with the other hand, and flipped open the nozzle of the can as she continued "so I'm just going to set you on fire and laugh at you as you burn."

"No, Tiffany, we can discuss this, you don't have to do this."

"Okay, if you can prove to me you've learned your lesson and promise not to come after me again, I'll let you go?"

Barry looked hopeful.

"Nah, I'm just fucking with you," said Tiffany as she started squirting lighter fluid all over Barry.

"Aww come on, I'll be good from now on."

"Sure you will," said Tiffany, halfway through the can.

No one said anything else as Barry tried to figure out a way to argue his way out of this.

Eventually the can was exhausted, Tiffany threw the can into Barry and she looked at the crossbow.

"RX 150, nice weapon there. Draw strength's a little low for us, but I think I'll keep it," she said as she aimed it at Barry's neck and fired.

Barry started to cry.

"Oh look, crocodile tears," said Tiffany, as she laughed a little.

Tiffany checked her watch.

Barry's flesh around the wound sizzled and eventually there was a puff of flame, this then spread all over Barry.

"SLEEP NOW IN THE FIRE!" Tiffany sang, making a show of her mirth as Barry burned.

He then turned to dust.

"Better?" asked Faith.

"Much … let's go find a hospital, Barry's goons give you much trouble?" asked Tiffany as she slung the crossbow.

"Never encountered them," said Jane, "Got a call from Robodaria though."

--

Daria thought about the phonecall she had just received from Spike.

She then decided to call Robodaria, see if she could help.

--

"Standby," said Robodaria as she accessed the CIA and NSA satellite constellations, the local cell phone networks.

She quickly identified a number of phones that were being carried around by vampires, these were close enough to Spike, Jane, Faith and Tiffany's numbers to be considered bandits. One was right next to Tiffany, the 10mm radar indicated he was pointing a crossbow at Tiffany, she concluded this guy was their leader.

So she called that one first in order to sample his voice.

"Hi, I'm from the Schwartz herbs and spices company, I'm conducting a survey, do you use our brand of garlic powder?"

"No, fuck off, I'm expecting a call."

As soon as he had hung up, Robodaria called the other X-rays.

"Yo!" "Hello?" "Jeffy here." "Jamie here."

The nice thing about having a number of central processors in the gigahertz range was she could hold up to 2000 conversations at once.

"Tiffany got away, go north 2000 metres and set up an ambush, now."

"No problemo." "On it." "Okay." "Roger, going north."

She watched them via the reconnaissance satellites as she then made contact with Jane, Faith and Spike.

"Spike, the others will need transport soon, get the explorer to the end of Bletchley road."

"Okay."

"Jane, Tiffany's been captured, I have control, head east and standby to make a noise."

"Gotcha."

"Faith, Tiffany's been captured, I have control, head north, Jane will divert the X-Ray, we'll then need you to incapacitate him." "Have that."

Robodaria then directed them up to their FAPs, telling them when to slow down.

"I have sight of the X-ray now, he has a crossbow pointed at Tiffany, I can't tell if Tiffany's restrained," said Faith.

"Have that, she doesn't appear to be, but there's a lot of heat pouring out of a wound in her leg, she may have been injured, you will attack when he looks away," said Robodaria. "Acknowledged, out," said Faith as she hung up.

"Jane, are you ready to make a noise?" asked Robodaria.

"Yeah, I'll break a few sticks, not very imaginative, but it should do you."

"Okay, standby … … and Go."

--

"That's going to leave quite a scar," said the doctor.

"Hmm, might be cool to freak out the other beachgoers," commented Tiffany as the doctor set up the equipment. "What's the treatment doc?"

"Remove the visible crystals by suction and prodding, then rinse out the wound with water, then use maggots to remove the cooked flesh, removal of the sodium hydroxide should take about two hours tops, maggots will need a couple of days to remove the cooked flesh, it would be a good idea to keep you in during your treatment, once the way is cleared, I'll be stitching across the void to try to cause the flesh to heal across, if it works, the void should close and you should be able to rebuild the muscle mass, that'll leave the crater in the skin, a little silicone should cover that up, but if you put on or lose weight, then the silicone will not expand or contract with it, so might be best to leave that."

"Okay, best get started then," said Tiffany.

--

Buffy and Aiden entered Geoff's office. "You wanted the results of the investigation?"

"Yes."

"Okay, we've turned up some interesting facts," said Buffy. "First off, Sudan, you must have heard what's happening there with the Janjaweed militias going around acting like SchutzStaffel death squads - those are the Sudanese being attacked by slayers. Zimbabwe it's Mugabe's goons. It looks like legitimate bad guys are being targeted, and they're still going after supernatural threats too, but seeing this happening right in front of them … " said Buffy.

"I see," said Geoff, "you do realize this will undermine any diplomatic efforts? We're going to look like a bunch of megalomaniacs, tell me you're taking measures to stop this happening."

Buffy was stunned into silence.

"Miss Summers, what are you doing to reel in these rogue agents?"

"Okay, you did hear that bit about the targets being bad guys, that is, death squads, marauding freelance gangsters going around torturing people? We're the good guys, letting the bad guys have their way is so counter intuitive, it's like accepting the world view that the earth is this disc on the back of a giant turtle," said Buffy.

"Irrelevant, you're breeching international law," said Geoff.

"Says a proponent of Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Buffy, now getting really angry.

"YOU WATCH YOUR TONE MISS SUMMERS, I WANT THE ROGUES STOPPED NOW! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

"I'm sorry, depraved indifference is off the menu-" started Buffy.

"Understood," said Aiden as he grabbed Buffy's wrist and the back of her neck, turning her towards the door, saying "Not our fight," and marching her out before she could even respond, Buffy asking him to let her go.

As soon as he was sure they were far enough away to discuss this quietly, he released Buffy and got clear before Buffy could smack him across the face.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT? YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY THINK THIS IS RIGHT!"

"I don't, I agree with you something should be done about the death squads," said Aiden.

"Then …" Buffy found herself calming as she realized Aiden was thinking up a solution, "I suppose you have a suggestion."

"Yes. But if you want forces in Africa to help the helpless with, they are going to have to become invisible for a while. Your slayers hand to hand skills are excellent, but you can't be sure how they will perform in a guerilla war, and you may have to distance yourself from them in order to support operations everywhere else, they will need to become completely self sufficient within the borders of hostile territory."

"What are we talking here? Plausible deniability?"

"Exactly, the same techniques Whitehall use to break international law can also be used to break orders. This will be far from easy, but I'll talk to the instructors at Hereford about taking an African holiday to go out and help your people with their efforts."

Buffy eventually nodded, and said "Okay, but if you like being able to walk, never man handle me like that again."

"Fair enough," said Aiden.

--

"Robodaria, we're at the last known location, and there is no sign of them," said Spike.

Jane was walking up the road where the footprints had stopped, but the mud wasn't that damp and had run out very quickly.

She was now guessing the course, but she noticed a bus stop.

"Spike, where does the fifty two go?"

Robodaria had heard Jane and told Spike "Standby … got it's transponder locked, it's off it's route."

--

Spike and Jane arrived to investigate the abandoned bus.

It wasn't abandoned… the bus was filled with corpses.

"Whoa - 'vamp kegger'… yeah, they've all been drained of blood," Jane said, letting the limp head of a dead elderly woman slump back down upon her chest. "How many of them do you think they turned?"

"Dunno," Spike said, before he noticed something. Stepping off the bus, he walked off to the side of the road, and noticed a trio of footprints headed away from the scene… one of those sets left a bloody footprint with each left step.

He walked back over, and hopped back onto the bus. "But I got us a lead."

"Sweet," said Jane, drawing a grenade from the frumpy bag she carried. "Time to nip tomorrow's troubles in the bud."

"What's that – incendiary grenade?"

"Thermite. With a burster," said Jane.

"You and Daria. The pair of you are fuckin' mental," said Spike, grinning.

Jane smiled as she tossed the grenade to Spike, and then selected another for herself. They exited the bus and following Jane's lead, Spike pulled the pin on his grenade and threw his through a window, the grenades ending up a quarter from each end of the bus.

Two bright flashes silhouetted Jane and Spike as they walked away from the portable abattoir; the thermite grenades detonated within a heartbeat of one another, flinging droplets of white-hot molten iron throughout the bus's interior and consuming the corpses inside in a mushrooming cloud of absolute heat.

--

"Aww, come on," said Jane as she was unable to find any more blood scent to follow.

"What's around here?" asked Spike.

"Not Kevin's place, he lives miles from here, we're nowhere near Tiffany's, or Daria's … " Jane picked up the phone and dialed Robodaria. "We need the address of Michael Jordan Mackenzie, and then we need directions from our location."

--

Jane and Spike arrived on site.

Jane knocked on the door.

Eventually Mrs. Mackenzie answered and asked "Yeah?"

"Have Kevin and three other boys passed through here?" asked Jane as she indicated the inside of the house, simultaneously checking that everyone was alive, she found the field was still up, but she wasn't sure if Mack would still be causing it from afar.

"Yes, they're with my husband out back."

"Mind if we come in?"

"No, come on in," said Mrs. Mackenzie.

Jane and Spike entered and continued through until they reached a window with a view to the back yard.

Where Kevin, Joey, Jeffy and Jamie were throwing a rugby ball between them and Mr. Mackenzie.

Jane and Spike were stunned by the situation, was Mr. Mackenzie also a vampire? Had these guys had enough time for that to have happened? Jane got a little mirror out and checked, but Mr. Mackenzie had a reflection, which looked a touch strange throwing the ball around without anyone around to throw it to.

"Mrs. Mackenzie, are you aware that the four boys playing with your husband are vampires?"

--

"The Mackenzie parents are surprisingly strong, by the time we got out into the street, Kevin and the stalkers of Quinn were long gone," said Jane.

Daria nodded. "They're about as bright as a black hole without anything to eat. You'll get them."

"Yeah, Daria, are you certain about sending Tiffany off on this mission?" asked Jane.

"Absolutely. It'll be good for her, and it's time I started laying down the law. I am her commander, after all," said Daria.

"Right, and I suppose you wouldn't have lost it like she did?"

"That's correct, there are perfectly easy ways to disrupt evil plans of this nature without making a twat of yourself. I've argued my way out of some real shit pies in my time."

"Okay," said Jane, "just be careful with Tiffany. She feels guilty, but if you overextend your credit, she'll react. I know she's caused problems, but be careful."

Daria was silent for a moment of contemplation. "Okay."

--

"We are here today to bid farewell to Sandi Griffin, a young woman who died well before her time, by a disturbed maniac who wasn't even interested in her primarily. She did not harm anyone, she had not set out to cause pain or suffering, and she will be missed by all who knew her," said the cleric.

Nobody said anything.

There was no doubt about who was to blame for Sandi's death: Kirsty Kramer.

Tiffany hated the fact that thoughts of Kirsty kept intruding in on her thoughts when this moment was SUPPOSED to be about Sandi, the dead girl in the maroon box with blue trim resting on two woven polypropylene straps above a hole in the ground.

But Kirsty WAS the reason Sandi was dead. She didn't do it by herself, and in fact, Tiffany had seen the video, so her last image of Sandi was of her on her knees with Kirsty's hand in her mouth shoving the corrosive material down her throat with the express intention of causing her to die painfully on camera.

To make Tiffany obsess over how much she hated Kirsty.

And it was working.

Still.

There was also the point that Tiffany had introduced the threat when she had encountered that Klan cell when she had run off that night.

There's no way she could have predicted that would happen, so why was that still an issue for her?

Because humans have this blame culture going on, where you HAVE to blame someone.

So why couldn't she blame the Klan and leave it at that?

Because they've been around for ages and it was Tiffany that had struck the hornet's nest?

Except she couldn't have know- 'Oh for fuck's sake, give it a fucking rest brain, or I'll nut the first tombstone I walk past … I will, I'll fucking do it … … '

Tiffany sighed and realized the cleric had reached then end of his sermon and hit the button, and Sandi's coffin started its descent.

--

"Weren't you going to read a eulogy?" asked Quinn as they waited for their drinks at the bar where the wake was being held.

"Was, but I couldn't start it," said Tiffany.

"How come?"

Tiffany sighed as she picked up her drink, a pint of whiskey, and after taking a long sip, she said "I felt I owed it to Sandi not to allow her funeral to become a rant about Kirsty, and how Sandi died was about the only thing I could think about, so it seemed best not to write one at all under those circumstances."

"Maybe her funeral should have been delayed," said Quinn as she picked up her pint of whiskey.

"Morgue's gotta move bodies, plus I'm doing that deep cover assignment starting tomorrow, probably best she got buried before she started growing mushrooms," said Tiffany.

"This sucks," said Quinn as she gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of whiskey.

After a sip, Tiffany said "You do realize that without Slayer powers, you're gonna be hammered in about five minutes if you keep up that rate?"

"Yeah? Watch as I vigorously fail to care," said Quinn as she gulped down another mouthful.

Tiffany shrugged and took another sip.

Then after about ten seconds of thought, she chugged the remainder of the glass, and returned it to the barkeep saying "same again."

--

Jake and Tom Griffin were looking through a photo album of Sandi's life.

"Most of her life was spent in conflict with Sam and Chris, Linda supported Sandi against me, and it was my responsibility to keep Sam and Chris under control, we needed to have a united front, but we ended up creating sides."

"Wasn't that different with Daria and Quinn, except Helen worked on both of them and I stayed neutral anytime things looked heated," said Jake, "All I know is that Sandi was a great help to Quinn, after Lawndale got blown up and their mothers died."

"Quinn's been good for Sandi too, although I daren't say that around Linda when she was alive, She and your Helen-"

"Tom and Jerry," said Jake.

"Itchy and Scratchy," said Tom.

"Itchy and Scratchy?" asked Jake.

"You'd have to watch The Simpsons," said Tom.

"Right."

--

Jane and Spike ordered their drinks, "One pint of Jack/Daniels and one orange juice."

Jane looked annoyed for a second, then remembered she was pregnant and said "Right," patting her abdomen as she leaned against the bar.

"Sorry about that," said Spike, "had I known about Conner, I wouldn't have gone bareback inside you."

"I know, I just wish I could get drunk, I mean, everyone else can get bladdered."

"Yeah, but you can't make it a clean kill, you need to look after the kid," said Spike.

"If it gets beyond a certain point, I don't think I'll be able to face terminating it. I mean, an embryo, sure, early stage foetus, but the more it looks like a person, you know?"

"Yeah, of course you know my position on abortion in general, but it's your soul."

"You mean it's my body," said Jane.

Spike didn't answer.

--

"I find this gathering tiresome," said Illyria.

"Yeah, I imagine you do, but this helps those who knew Sandi," said Daria.

"I didn't."

"No, but Stacy did, anything from your shells memories got anything complimentary about Sandi?" asked Daria.

Illyria thought, and said "Sandi was a skilled manipulator."

Daria thought about this and eventually said "Perhaps you should think less Klingon and more … … … Talk to Quinn," said Daria as she went off in search of Jane.

--

"You'd think wasting some of the cone heads would do something for us," commented Jane.

Spike didn't respond.

Jane glanced over to Spike.

"But I guess it's vengeance that got us into this in the first place," said Jane.

Still no response.

"Did I mention that I've been slipping you roofies and videotaping you while Wesley had hot passionate sex with your unconscious body?"

Still nothing.

"Oh-kayyyyy," said Jane.

--

"You are heavily intoxicated," observed Illyria.

Quinn giggled and said "Yeah? What are you, my mom? No, you're just some demon who replaced my friend, you know?"

"I noticed you didn't grieve as much for Stacy Rowe," said Illyria.

"Yeah, it was probably the weirdness of you pretending to be her for so long and the lack of familiarity with the supernatural that sort of, let me down gently, but that's pretty fucked, innit?" asked Quinn.

"I wasn't new to this, and even I got thrown by it," said Tiffany.

"Yeah, but what does that make us, huh?"

"Hypocrites," said Illyria.

"Yeah, and what about you Illyria, didn't you used to be evil?"

"I used to be in charge. In my day, calling me evil would have resulted in your death," said Illyria.

"You starting then?" asked Quinn.

"Fuck's sake," commented Tiffany as she took another sip.

"You intend to fight me?" asked Illyria.

"You chicken?"

"What do you intend to do? Regurgitate on me?"

Quinn threw a punch.

Then another.

Then another.

Ignoring the punches Quinn was throwing, Illyria turned to Tiffany and asked "When you had Kirsty, you could have killed her yourself."

"Yeah, would have, except I decided it would be better to give her … Plus our bosses wouldn't have been able to cover up my involvement, Kirsty was defenceless, no longer a threat, once you take the threat prisoner, the rules change."

"But your judicial system has capitol punishment, would you not have been within your rights to have killed her?"

"Yeah, well, department of justice tends to throw a tantrum if they can't get a piece of the action. Also, extrajudicial executions on coast to coast telly can scare the punters and make things difficult for our bosses, which means myself, plus others on our team, could get done for it," said Tiffany.

"Your so called democracy is ineffective anyway. The only viable candidates are the ones with the money to afford the airtime to advertise at up coming elections, the only people who really get to choose who becomes your leaders are those with the money to support them. The two biggest competing brands from whatever industries exist will back a candidate they know will do their bidding."

"Hmm," commented Tiffany.

"This amuses you?"

"Can't say they made a very good choice with this twat, longer we go with him in charge, the less seriously the world takes this country as any kind of leader."

"Bush isn't the problem, he's a puppet, but not of industry."

"Eh?"

"Your Secretary Of Defence, Donald, he's the person your president looks to for advice, his emotions are consistent with those of a megalomaniac who cares about keeping us under control but seems to be perfectly fine with us losing to a certain extent. He manipulates the situation so we're just the right amount of losing without it becoming a major defeat."

"There are a whole load of conspiracy theories floating around about 9/11."

"I managed to ask just the right question about that day, and he broadcast a smug glee in response, he considers the day an unparalleled success."

"Hmm … "

Illyria caught Quinn's wrists between the outer pairs of fingers of one hand, effectively restraining Quinn as she asked "You are considering what else he might be up to?"

Quinn struggled against the apparently iron grip Illyria had on her wrists.

"Notice how that demon invasion in LA got discounted as a slight glitch whenever we talk to Donald?"

"Of course I have," said Illyria, "We're in the same position now as we were when Angel Investigations was in charge of their Los Angeles branch. Only now Wolfram and Hart may have developed a counterstrategy against us, the next fight will be much harder."

"I got to wonder, the Wolf, Ram and Hart at the centre of all of this, what do you know of them?"

"They are essentially psychic parasites that feed off of evil impulses of humans. In my time there weren't enough humans around for them to get much out of them, but since us old ones were kicked off the face of the earth, and humans took over, their strength has grown considerably."

"What about Pylea? They have a presence there, and almost no humans with any power to be evil with."

"Not yet, they wish to expand into Pylea."

"Ah, right, so their presence would come long after humans overthrow the demons and start doing their very own evil," said Tiffany.

"Ughhh, they're like some sort of parasite," said Quinn.

"I mentioned this earlier," said Illyria.

"Hence them manipulating the situation so that they have the maximum of evil to feed off of," commented Tiffany, she then said "Are they vulnerable to anything?"

"They are immortal and invincible, the more evil energy they receive, the more they can do," said Illyria.

"Well, that's me filled with optimism," said Tiffany.

"They can still be defeated, if those who do evil are afraid to act, their power will diminish steadily."

"So the best we can hope for is to keep their power below a certain threshold?" asked Tiffany.

"Not quite, if their influence can be reduced sufficiently and all their support eliminated, they can be bound to objects that can then be contained in a magical shield such as ferrite."

"And that can then be resistance welded closed and placed somewhere safe for eternal storage," said Tiffany.

"Correct," said Illyria, "but such a location must not be accessible to anyone, and as far as I know, there is no such place that the container would survive."

"Winifred's a physicist, she might have some ideas," said Tiffany.

--

Jane was getting increasingly annoyed with the silent treatment Spike was still giving her.

"Okay, Spike, seriously, what the FUCK is your problem?"

"MY PROBLEM? TRY YOUR PROBLEM, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WANTS TO KILL YOUR BABY."

"Okay, let's ban abortion, at least that'll curb illegal immigration, because everyone will be trying to sneak into CANADA!"

"Oh, so this is about money is it?"

"IT'S ALSO ABOUT MY RIGHT TO DECIDE WHAT GOES ON IN MY OWN BODY-"

"AND WHAT ABOUT THE BABY'S RIGHT TO DECIDE IF IT GETS TO LIVE?"

"IT'S NOT EVEN CONSCIOUS YET!"

"JANE, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT."

"NO, YOU DON'T GET IT!"

"JANE, YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY I DON'T."

"YEAH, I HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO EITHER DIE OR FOREVER CARRY A PRISTINE BABY CADAVER FOR THE REST OF TIME, YOU LIKE THIS BABY SO MUCH, MAYBE WE SHOULD SWAP BODIES, I'M SURE WESLEY WOULD BE PERFECTLY HAPPY TO LEND US THE DRACONIAN KATRA."

"HEY, LITTLE RESPECT FOR THE DEAD GIRL WE'RE MOURNING HERE?" Shouted Tom Griffin.

"HEY, YOU KEEP OUT OF THIS, THIS IS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION!" shouted Spike.

"THAT YOU'RE HAVING AT THREE THOUSAND DECIBELS!" Shouted Quinn, who was still struggling against Illyria.

"GET FUCKED!" shouted Spike.

"HEY!" shouted Jake as he approached Spike, "NO ONE TELLS MY DAUGHTER TO GET FUCKED."

"YEAH? COME ON THEN," said Spike as he approached Jake back.

Illyria released Quinn and she waded into the contact.

Jake threw a punch, but Spike interrupted and struck Jake with his palm.

Jake staggered back and Quinn kicked Spike in the ribs.

Spike smacked Quinn across the left temple with the back of his fist.

"HEY! WATCH IT!" Shouted Tiffany.

"What you gonna do about it?" asked Spike.

Tiffany put her drink down on the bar and walked over Spike and spoofed a punch before kicking Spike under the sternum sending him flying.

"Right, you're going down," said Spike as he stomped back over to Tiffany and they started really going at it.

Quinn got up and almost fell over, Jane caught her, and she freaked out, "GET OFF ME!"

"Easy Quinn," said Jane as Quinn started hitting her.

"GET OFF ME, GET OFF ME, GET OFF ME!!!"

Jane held her hands clear as Quinn continued her attack.

She then noticed Quinn was sweating a certain kind of pheromone.

"Ooooooh fuck," she commented.

Jake approached and asked "What's wrong Quinn?"

He reached to grab Quinn but Jane grabbed his wrist first and looked into his eyes. He took the hint that he shouldn't touch her and stepped back.

Eventually Quinn fell exhausted to her knees and vomited on Jane's feet.

Jane signaled Jake to continue to hold as she watched Quinn, who remained on her knees for some time.

Jane then crouched in front of Quinn and said "in case you're in any doubt there, you're safe."

"I know, I just … I thought the flashbacks had stopped ages ago."

"I think it's the getting absolutely shitfaced might have tripped you up there," commented Jane.

"Could be," admitted Quinn, "Sorry about the boots."

"Eh, it'll help me acclimatize to certain aspects of motherhood," said Jane.

Eventually Quinn said "I think I should go home now," as she stood up.

"Okay, I'll drive you," said Jane as she started to lead Quinn out.

"What about them two?" asked Jake indicating Tiffany and Spike who were still going at it.

"Do you want to get between those two?" asked Jane.

"God no," said Jake.

"Eh, they'll be fine. Unless Tiffany pulls a stake, in which case I'll make her wish she hadn't. I'll be back," said Jane as she led Quinn out the door.

Jane sat Quinn in the forward passenger seat of the car.

She caught the reflection just in time to react, she spun around deflecting the boy's stake and wrapping her arm around his. She managed to kick his far knee out and get him on the floor before he twisted around and kick the back of her head.

The impact was insufficient to do more than send her forwards, she went with it and flipped over onto her feet before he came at her again.

"Excuse me, I'm one of the good guys?"

"Without a reflection."

"I have a soul."

"You could be just saying that."

"Yeah, I could … Where have I seen you before?"

"Me? … I was on TV a couple of times with Jasmine and then when I went nuts and took a shop full of people hostage."

Jane snapped her fingers and said "Conner Reilly."

--

Part 4

--

"Okay, you want to drink this slowly or you'll puke again," said Jane as she handed Quinn a glass of water with a couple of aspirins dissolved in it.

Quinn mumbled "okay," as she accepted the glass and started to sip it.

Jane hadn't sat Quinn down because if she did, Quinn would probably fall asleep there, and Jane wanted to get her into bed first.

Turning to Conner, Jane asked "So you met Spike when you were brought to Wolfram and Hart by your parents?"

"Yeah, he and Angel were arguing a lot. It was funny."

"Angel was your dad, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, only recently found out."

"Yeah, seemed we were under some sort of memory spell, my mom lifted it."

"Yeah, so I gather, confused the shit out of me," said Conner, "two sets of memories, one growing up with the Reillys, the other growing up in an evil dimension with a vengeance seeking nut case who used me to exact vengeance against my dad. I decided to chain up my dad and drop him in the ocean, took Wesley three months to find him, then a whole bunch of other dumb shit happened. I ended up aligning myself with Jasmine, who was both my daughter and a demon entity from another dimension, but that didn't quite work out either, so now, here I am."

"Wow … Heard your mom died giving birth."

"Had to stake herself because of a mystical shield or something that was stopping me coming out, and a cesarean wasn't going to happen either."

"Hmm," said Jane looking annoyed.

"I was told Darla didn't have a soul."

"Yeah, but I was hoping there was a way of getting around that mystical barrier without resorting to suicide," said Jane as she felt her uterus through her abdomen.

Conner thought about what she was doing and said "you're pregnant?"

"Yeah … might not have happened if Spike had heard of you, thought that being vampires, we didn't need to use condoms."

"Where is Spike?"

"Still at the pub, left him in a fight with Tiffany."

"Tiffany, the girl that was in that death match with that conehead?"

"Yeah, she's a vampire slayer, so was the conehead apparently."

"Thought there were only supposed to be two, or one."

"Used to, but a witch with a mystical axe changed all that, now any girl that can be a slayer is a slayer, all the potential slayers got activated."

"Ah, right. … And one potential was in the Ku Klux Klan?"

"Yeah, you'd think these powers would know the difference between good and evil."

"Faith didn't for a while."

"Yeah, I keep hearing about that."

"Well, being a vampire with a soul means you have, like, hundreds of years of evil to make up for."

"Not for me, my mom stuck my soul back in before I could do anything embarrassing … … Hmm."

"What?"

"Something I need to talk to Spike about, soon as I get this one to bed I'm headed back to the pub."

"Finished," said Quinn.

"Okay," said Jane as she looked under a sink and found a plastic bucket, she grabbed that and helped Quinn up the stairs.

"I don't feel too good," said Quinn.

"That's alcohol poisoning for you," said Jane as she positioned Quinn on her side on the bed, she placed the basin next to her saying "If you're awake enough and find you're about to puke, do it in this, okay?"

"Okay," said Quinn.

"Right, I'll be off then."

--

Jane and Conner entered the pub where the fight was still ongoing. Lots of furniture had been broken, and everyone was just standing off to the side watching while calmly discussing their various concerns.

"SPIKE," called Jane.

"YEAH? … Conner?" Spike's distracted state was suddenly taken advantage of by Tiffany who nutted him in the cheek. After stumbling sideways for a little bit he said "Oww. Tiffany, give me a minute would you?"

"You'll get second wind."

"No' you'll get second wind, I'll just stop hurting slightly," said Spike.

Tiffany nodded and backed off.

"What'ya doing here Conner?" asked Spike as he approached.

"Just got these memories back, and I remembered your face and voice off the news. Semester doesn't start for a while, so I came over."

"Right, so … … Your dad," realized Spike.

"Yeah, tried finding him, but I couldn't, so I came over here."

"Afraid he's dead, I mean, pile of dust dead not vampire dead."

"When did this happen?"

"That apocalypse we had a few months ago, Apparently Marcus killed him."

"Marcus," snarled Conner.

"He's dead too now."

"Pile of dust dead?"

"Vaporised dead."

"I was hoping he'd suffered."

"He fell onto the street out of the CEO's office, he may have realized that if he fell unconscious, my next shot would kill him," said Illyria as she approached.

"Fell out the … quite a drop."

"Unfortunately people tried to help him as I took my next shot, I had to accept the collateral damage or delay killing him for another time," said Illyria.

"Right," said Conner, looking disturbed.

"This distresses you," said Illyria.

"Yes," said Conner.

"It angered the others when I returned with the news."

"What about you, did you have an issue with it?"

"No, we needed Marcus dead, and that demon army was going to kill a lot of people on the side anyway, and I have many times advised you people that to win a war-"

"-Serve no master but your ambition," interrupted Spike.

"It is true that you should try to minimize the body count to your primary targets, but occasionally you have to be prepared to accept the side effects."

"So, if you were to be taken hostage and the consequences of not going in was the destruction of an entire city, you'd be fine with us killing you to get to the bad guys, would you?"

"Of course not, and I don't maintain any delusions that those people that tried to help Marcus were fine with me killing them along with him. I simply ran out of more acceptable options."

"As simple as, huh?" asked Spike.

"As simple as," affirmed Illyria.

"We fighting or what?" asked Tiffany.

Spike held up a finger to signal 'wait' as he said "I suppose I'm the only one who has a problem then."

"Because you've spent hundreds of years doing unspeakable evil and are alarmed that those around you don't seem to realize just how lucky they are to have a shot at something you no longer have," said Jane.

Spike looked at her funny.

"We can discuss this when we get home tonight."

"Right," said Spike.

He then turned back to Tiffany and they re-engaged.

--

Jane and Spike eventually got home and they microwaved a couple of mugs of blood.

"Was I right?" asked Jane.

"Yes, you're right."

"I did have a scare just before the second bringer war kicked off, but it turned out it was just the First Evil fucking with me."

"Right … Jane, I don't think you want to know what I got up to when I was evil."

"Think I'll hate you for it?"

"Well … No, not really, it's just embarrassing."

"Like how Tiffany felt about what happened between her and Quinn?" asked Jane.

"Yeah."

"I take it this 'evil' is 'Uday Hussein putting the frighteners on the people of Iraq' evil, not 'forgot to correctly fill out your tax return forms' evil?"

"And then some."

"But you're not going to pull that shit again, are you?"

"No."

"Then I don't think it's going to be a problem, I mean you're a different person altogether without a soul, right?"

"Yeah … There are just problems with the reliability of a vampires soul is all."

"What kind of problems?"

"Angel occasionally lost his soul, this was down to a moment of perfect happiness usually, sometimes just from a euphoria inducing drug. That doesn't seem to be a problem for us, but if you were to ever lose your soul … … you're an artist, you do sculptures, that passion for your craft could translate into a load of extremely grizzly murders."

"I see. … I threatened to inject Amy Madison with several millilitres of capsaicin recently, so I get what you mean. It's pretty scary actually."

The microwave completed the impulse and the vampires removed the mugs from it and started to drink their blood.

"I suppose if Conner found out I want to abort mine, he'd probably take it personally."

"That he would. … Also, I'm it's father, so … … Never thought I'd have a chance to start a family."

"That the reason you've been so against me trying to abort?" asked Jane.

"No, it's something I just thought of. If it's going to kill you though, I'd rather have you around than it."

"Appreciated," acknowledged Jane.

"But the kid is a piece of both of us, now it exists, I … I just can't … … I mean, it's your body, but it's my kid inside it," said Spike.

"Also appreciated," said Jane.

"There's also your soul. We're pretty much immune to most things humans aren't, but you could still be killed one day, and there's places I'd rather you not end up."

"Hmm … Hard thought to get used to, Hell being real … and in more flavours than Wine Gums."

"Had a taster when I encountered Matthias Pavayne while I was a ghost at Wolfram And Hart."

"How did that go?" asked Jane.

Spike tilted his head and said "Hmm … torture, pain, general all around nastiness. … Have you ever been tortured? Raped? Anything where you were held down and attacked in some way?"

Jane eventually said "No, I haven't … Tiffany tried to stake me a couple of times, but what you're describing is something I can't imagine."

"And I don't want you to have to experience that, not for a second, especially not a fucking eternity."

Jane nodded and drank some more blood, Spike also took a sip of his.

"You said something earlier about it being harder to be willing to terminate your pregnancy the more developed the foetus was?" asked Spike.

"Yeah," said Jane.

"I have to admit I feel the same, if it were at the embryo stage, it would be less of a problem for me, but then it's still a human life we're taking."

"I've read up on pregnancy quite a bit since I found myself with child, it seems most people trying to get pregnant fail to do so because the woman is so stressed trying to get everything just right that her system is filled with stress hormones, and she self aborts without realizing it's even happening, then gets even more distressed over her seeming impotence. Seems there's a natural process for it."

"Hmm … inapplicable as it is in our case, there's also supposed to be this bible passage that supports abortion before the embryo embeds," said Spike.

"Bible also says something about not letting witches live, so considering my mom's a witch, Bible can get fucked," said Jane.

They both drank more blood in silence.

"How the fuck did they know what an embryo was back then?" asked Jane.

"What?" asked Spike.

"The Bible Writers, they predate anything that could have been used to work out that an Ova exists."

"Oh … … Dunno."

--

Tiffany awoke at the sound of her alarm and sat up.

Today she was going on her mission.

It was going to be months before she would be able to return to Lawndale.

There was still a bunch of questions she had that weren't going to be answered until her briefing.

This annoyed her immensely, they wanted her to infiltrate the fucking triads, and she had no idea how she was going to do this.

One thing was for certain, if they wanted her to play the part of a prostitute, Daria would get to see her heart getting ripped out of her chest just before she dies.

--

"You're going to attract the attention of this guy, Lia Nuuron, a Triad pimp," said Daria.

Tiffany looked around the room full of federal agents and said "Daria, just because I'm in a room full of federal agents doesn't mean I'm not going to kill you if this is going where I THINK it's going."

"You'd be unlikely to learn anything interesting as a prostitute, so that's not what we're thinking. You'll attract his attention, he'll take you home to his brothel, what happens next will go one of two ways, you'll either get a job as a frightener or guard, or you will really piss them off and become their most important target, either would be acceptable but you're more likely to work your way up the chain of command if you become a hit man and the important guys get arrested or otherwise neutralized," said Daria.

"If I become a target?" asked Tiffany.

"You'll keep killing Triad enforcers and make them move large amounts of money for top notch assassins and mercenaries, make them do something we can possibly trace to key triads."

"This is what makes this complicated," said Agent Craig Hiller as he interrupted Daria, "as National Security agents, you're authorized to break the law an awful lot, but we can't, so officially, we don't know this is happening. Your 'anonymous tips' will put us in a position to start acquiring evidence that will help us convict the triads, we think that the local police forces may have been infiltrated or corrupted."

"So they don't know we're doing this, do they?"

"No they don't. If they decide to arrest you, it'll be up to you to resist arrest, but if you do get arrested, the triads may hire a lawyer to help get you out, or bribe the cops into releasing you."

"We have observed no such history of unexplained releases or acquittals, everything looked like it was above board, so best not get arrested," said Daria.

"Okay then, so I go in as a runaway, walk off with a stranger, and hurt the guy when he tries to make me into one of his whores and see where it goes from there?"

"Exactly. Then send us any intelligence you come across, and we'll work out what to do from there. We'll have to delay action against these individuals for some time to avoid compromising your identity."

"How am I to communicate this intelligence?" asked Tiffany.

"That'll be explained as you insert," said Daria.

Tiffany looked in expectance of further explanation.

When none was forthcoming, Tiffany nodded and asked "Anything else?"

"Just your costume and props," said Daria.

--

Michelle Dushku (Tiffany's character) read the copy of the New York A-Z she had been given along with her costume.

She felt it would have been more appropriate to be reading files on the triads she was to investigate.

That wouldn't make sense in reality of course, but it was how it was done in the movies.

Well, maybe not all of the movies, but … ahhhhhh.

Any other potential target was back at the last station being held by the police for questioning, they will eventually be released with apologies of course, but the effect was that Tiffany was the only girl worth grabbing.

'Michelle Amanda receiving, over?'

'Of course,' thought Tiffany as she realized this was how she was to communicate intelligence.

'Amanda Tif- … Michelle, go ahead, over.'

'I'm in position awaiting your arrival, over.'

'All right, I've been seeing nothing but buildings for about half an hour now, so I should be there soon, out.'

--

Amanda looked carefully around the station.

Eventually she spotted the guy.

'Michelle Amanda, target sighted, main entrance.'

--

"Attention ladies and gentlemen, we'll be arriving at Grand Central Station in five minutes, all change, all change."

'Received, time on target: Five minutes, over.'

Tiffan- Michelle picked up her backpack and prepared to disembark.

This was going to take some getting used to.

She was going to have to look a little lost, like she didn't know what she was doing.

She entered the station's shopping area looking around.

She then pulled her New York A-Z again just to add to the air of nervous cluelessness.

'Okay, you got him, do not approach, let him approach you.'

Michelle acknowledged and headed over to some of the restaurants, looking at their menus.

She pulled a 10$ note and about 65c in change, and then put it back looking worried.

She then pulled her A-Z again and looked supposedly for some clue as to where to go to eat.

She then slowly headed out of the station.

She stopped at the entrance and then after a few minutes, she headed back into the station and sat on a bench looking like she was hoping to get something useful from the rather uninformative guide book.

Eventually she snapped the book shut in frustration, staring straight up at the ceiling.

"You alright there?"

Michelle looked up at the bearer of the voice and said "Well, provided you're not some goody two shoes out to convince me I'm better off at home, perfectly."

" … Ooookayyyyy, wasn't interested in your home life, you just looked lost is all."

"Good, exactly where I want to be."

"Want to grab some lunch? My treat," said the 'stranger'.

After about twenty seconds of thought, Michelle said "Yeah, alright then."

--

After making her selection, Lia suggested she pick a table while he gets their food.

He arrived at the table with two BK triple whopper meals.

Michelle thanked him and started eating.

"So, you have a name?" asked Lia.

Michelle glared a little.

"What? Just curious, I mean … … you can make one up if you like."

"Any name I want?" asked Michelle.

"Any name you want."

Michelle snorted a laugh for a moment and said "well, okay, I want to beeeeeee … … Xena, or perhaps Max Guevera … Or better yet, Starfire."

Lia chuckled and said "I have no idea who they are."

"They're people that wouldn't have had to have … … "

Lia looked at her in expectance of an answer and eventually asked "What?"

"Nothing."

He shrugged and asked "Got a place to stay lined up?"

Michelle sat back and casually said "I heard of this spacious cardboard box this crazy cat lady is putting up for rent, but that might prove a touch expensive, so I don't think that will work in the long term."

"I could let you stay at my place for a while."

"Really? What's the catch?"

He chuckled a little and said "No catch, just being a good Samaritan."

Michelle continued to eat and said "Alright, but any funny stuff will cost you."

"Okay."

They eventually finished their food and headed out.

Michelle watched the city pass around the car, a dodge viper, rather quickly in some places.

Michelle let out a yawn, wondering how much more boring this guy was going to get already.

"Exciting huh?" asked Lia.

"Sure," said Michelle, trying to send more information to Amanda.

Eventually they entered the suburbs and pulled into the driveway of a fully detached house.

"Here we are, come on, I'll show you around."

Michelle emerged from the car blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

The place wasn't that well cared for but it looked like at least some effort went into keeping it looking reasonable.

Inside it was like the kind of place you'd expect Upchuck to live in, full of posters of classy and high powered cars and posters of naked women getting fucked.

If she wasn't a vampire slayer, this would be a little creepy, but she knew she could kick his ass if he tried anything.

Assuming she doesn't fall over from exhaustion.

Wait, what exhaustion?

"Come on, I'll show you your room."

Michelle considered her options.

Lia approached her looking concerned.

He then grinned.

"This'll definitely cost you," she said as she realized she couldn't do either of the two options that had popped up: Bug out or slot the nonce.

"Yeah well, you look exhausted, you should really lie down and get out of those clothes," he said as he put an arm around her and pushed her towards the room he had set up for her.

Her attempt to resist simply caused her to stumble, Lia prevented her from falling flat on her face.

"Easy there," he said as he pulled one of Tiffany's arms over his shoulder and carried her to the room which had a pink bed and was decorated like that of a 'My Little Pony' fanatic.

She could barely feel her body as he laid her down on the bed, "I got ya, I got ya, now let's see what I got," he said as he started to undress her.

--

'Daria Amanda, receiving, over?'

'Amanda Daria, go ahead, over.'

'Just lost contact with Tiffany.'

'What was the last thing that happened?'

'She was accompanying the target back to his house.'

'Right, I'll contact the feds, set up an operation on his known address, hopefully the guy's dumb enough to take her there.'

'Received, out.'

--

"That's the only one you could find?"

Tiffany awoke to the sound of voices.

"Yeah, annoying, but it happens,"

Voices from within her room.

"Also looks a bit old,"

She also realized she had fallen asleep naked on top of the sheets, 'wait a minute, OLD???'

"Some kids look older then they in fact are, and yeah, I know she isn't a cherry, but she looks nice enough."

Who were th- … Tiffany remembered what she had been doing earlier on that day and suddenly realized she was waking up after having accompanied a known pimp home after he DRUGGED her-

"Any signs of venereal diseases?" asked one of the men, she suddenly felt a hand pushing her left knee up to get the leg it was attached to out the way of her-

Tiffany woke up and belted the man that was trying to molest her with the back of her fist.

She was on her feet half a second later glaring at Lia.

Lia backed away nervously, he knew the energy that punch had delivered to his friend's face told of enormous strength.

"What the fuck, did I tell you, about any funny business? Do I really have to spell it out for you? Funny business would have been on the level of hitting on me for sex, and that would have cost you the ability to eat solid food for several months. What do you think, therefore, slipping me a sedative and using me as a fuck doll will cost you, hmmmmm?"

"OWWWW! I THOUGHT YOU SEDATED HER!" said the other guy.

"I did," said Lia as Tiffany continued to advance, forcing him back against the wall.

Tiffany reached forth menacingly, placing her thumb across his trachea as her fingers stroked the side of his head, he looked like he was about to shit himself.

"You two like using girls for your own amusement, like making them do degrading and disgusting things, like making them submit, like watching them die a little inside as you cum on or in them, and thought you'd do the same to me, right? Did you do anything or did I wake up just in time?"

"Nothing, I swear, it reduces the finder's fee if the district pimp sees signs you've just been fucked or smells cum on you," he whimpered.

"But after verification of the goods and a sale, you'd have both had a go, wouldn't you?" Tiffany said as she gently ramped up the pressure on his trachea.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't kill me," he cried.

"Oh for fuck's sake," said the other guy as he got up and walked up to them, he grabbed Tiffany's shoulder and tried to spin her towards him, only to find her immovable.

Tiffany struck the guy with her index and middle fingertips of her other hand in his forehead with enough force to throw the guy backwards fast enough that he couldn't even get his hands behind him before he hit the floor.

The second guy finally got the hint that Tiffany was out of his league and called out "NICK! NEED YOUR HELP HERE!"

A couple of seconds later, a heavy built goon in a suit entered and asked "What's the problem?"

"Girl needs hurting."

"Right," said Nick as he turned back to Tiffany and reached for her throat, only for her to grab his wrist and squeeze.

Hard!

"AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Girl needs your obedience, if she doesn't want to add three brutal GBH charges to the murder charges. Not that I'll be caught of course. You know, when I arrived in Grand Central Station, I was apprehensive to say the least. Runaway girl on her own with barely enough for a family bucket from KFC, how was I going to survive? But it looks like you three should be able to provide enough money for me to start renting an apartment, albeit a rather shit one, and maybe start looking for a job … OR just go around mugging people who are too physically strong to get over the embarrassment of getting done over by a girl sized like me to report it. Whatever works best for me."

"Please, you're hurting me," whimpered Nick.

"Yes I am. What would you do to make it stop?" asked Tiffany as she ramped up the pressure, pulsing her grip to enhance her point further.

"ANYTHING! ANYTHING! GOD, JUST STOP DOING THAT!" yelled Nick, who obviously wasn't used to resisting coercion from someone stronger than him.

"Okay," said Tiffany as she let go of Nick's arm, she then handed him Lia and said "Make him suck my clitoris."

Nick apologised to Lia and forced him by his shoulders to his knees.

Tiffany just stood there arms crossed as Nick coerced Lia into placing his lips around Tiffany's clit and he started sucking on it.

Eventually Lia completed his task.

"That was good."

Lia didn't respond.

"Now, you, and that guy you were trying to sell me to, are going to 69 and blow each other."

"HEY!" said Lia.

"NOW WAIT A MINUTE! DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?" started Lia's friend.

"Yes, you're the cunt that wanted to rent or buy me off this guy," Tiffany indicated Lia, "Who sedated and raped me, and I THINK, that the pair of you should be EXTREMELY grateful that I am giving you this chance to work off your debt to me without spending years in traction and then more years learning to walk again."

"But I told you-" started Lia

"AND I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! THE LAST THING I REMEMBER WAS BEING CARRIED TO THAT BED AND YOU REMOVING MY CLOTHES! DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOUR WORD WHEN YOU WERE PROBABLY JUST TRYING TO STOP ME FROM HURTING YOU! NOW GET YOUR KIT OFF AND GO PLAY WITH YOUR FRIEND!" Shouted Tiffany, to whose raised voice the gangsters were now very sensitive.

The two gangsters slowly stripped off and Nick just stood there hoping Tiffany wouldn't punish him along with them.

--

'Amanda Tiffany, receiving, over?'

'Tiffany, where the fuck were you?' blurted a severely tense Amanda.

'Asleep at the target's house, apparently. I woke up as he was trying to sell me to this guy, gave them both a lesson in why you shouldn't fuck with a vampire slayer.'

'You didn't actually tell them-'

'Fuck no, but I think I've established my character now.'

'What did you do?'

'Made them fuck each other, given what they do for a living, it seemed appropriate.'

Amanda chuckled at this.

'Starting to change my mind about this job.'

'You're good to continue then?' asked Amanda.

'Yeah, I get to be violent to a bunch of bad guys without so many rules about how I may abuse them, it's a sweet gig.'

'Glad you're enjoying it. … Tiffany, you were unconscious in that guy's house, you may have been raped.'

'At least this time I was unconscious, but I don't think I was actually, guy said it makes it harder to sell me if he recently used me, I mean, he might have, so I'll get some emergency contraception pills, anti-viral and anti biotic for that, but I'm pretty sure he didn't. … Not that I'm telling him that, I want him afraid of me of course.'

'Of course. I'll tell Daria you're alright then.'

Amanda then focused on Daria.

--

Daria entered the war room, where Illyria, Jane, Robodaria, Wesley and Winifred were assembled along with Donald.

"Evening," greeted Daria.

"Amiga," Jane replied.

"How's it going with Tiffany?" asked Wesley.

"She seems to be settling in just fine. We ready for this?"

"Probably not," said Robodaria, "but the ships are all in place and are listening out for anything interesting. Signal's five by five so far, that could change."

"Are we getting anything?"

"Yeah, fuck all, they know where our ships are, probably know where our subs are too."

"Ships just got there, right?" asked Daria.

"Yeah," said Jane.

"Okay, let's get a map of the sea floor terrain," said Daria.

"That'll tell the bad guys we're looking for them," said Robodaria.

"We need them to do something interesting," said Daria.

"Okay, do it," said Donald.

Robodaria sent the command.

They all watched as the data came in.

It quickly got boring.

"Nothing so far, that's strange," said Robodaria.

"How's that?" asked Donald.

"We're expecting pipes or cables or something," said Daria.

"Yeah, anything wider than about five millimeters would show up," said Robodaria.

"Would they really need that?" asked Donald.

"They could just be moving bottles from the generator instead," said Robodaria, "problem with that is you have to send units and that can generate noise."

"There's another possibility," said Daria, "they got the power available to burn through kilometers of rock with a laser."

"Or X-ray cannon," said Donald.

"No, you only want to use that for destruction, X-rays penetrate deep into the target and heat the whole thing, you'd leave a massive trench," said Daria.

"If they send units, we'll detect them with active sonar," said Robodaria.

"Which could motivate them to sneak up on the ships and blow them out of the water," said Daria.

"What if they're too sneaky?" asked Jane.

"Our sonar will be over their plant in a few hours, and we're going to blow it up, they'll come running, and we'll detect their origins," said Robodaria.

"We'll get something useful even if it's that they have extremely unkickable asses," said Daria.

"This is a really desperate act, isn't it?" said Donald.

"Hyep," said Daria.

"Sonar contact reported at 42 12 west, 13 10 north, pretty loud, climbing to the surface," said one of the officers.

"I thought the subs were going to maintain radio silence," said Donald.

"This is from the Nebraska sir, Nebraska's not part of the operation, all the other vessels have been tasked with reporting anything of interest," said the officer.

"It's on satellite now," said Robodaria as she brought up the image on the main screen.

They watched as two big black bisected hexagons emerged from the ocean, powered by what looked like larger versions of the plasma thrusters the cyborgs were using, the thrusters were located on the back of the two trailing edges in what looked like neatly carved out recesses.

"Those the fighters?" asked Donald.

"No, those are bigger, and they're packing something between the hemispheres," said Robodaria.

"Packing what?" Asked Donald.

The back of the bit in the middle flashed pulses of plasma as something bright and faintly orange shot out the front, there were several bursts.

"Something very bad for our health," said Daria.

Another image then was inset into the main picture focusing on the projectiles.

"Missiles?" asked Donald.

"Shells," said Robodaria, "that bright light the shells are emitting, it's spectra's consistent with sodium."

The vehicles dived back into the sea.

The projectiles were starting to spread out as they arrived at their first target.

The shells entered along the length of the ship, a frigate, and each segment of the ship was ripped open by a nuclear explosion equivalent to 200T of TNT.

"Sodium? Salt from the sea?" asked Wesley.

"No, that wouldn't do it, it's too bright for that to be heat from friction, that sodium must have been heated directly by a process within the barrel," said Winifred.

"The propellant?" asked Wesley.

"Or the pickup coils," said Daria.

"Who uses sodium to make up a pick- … Wait a minute, sodium's got really loose electrons," said Winifred, "All the group one metals do, and it would be easier to use something heavier such as rubidium or caesium of course, but they got access to tons of sodium, I picked sodium for a rocket propellant because of it's abundance," continued Winifred.

"If this was a cartoon, we'd all have giant question marks over our heads about now," said Jane.

"Yeah, you gonna give us mere … errr … idiots a clue?" asked Spike.

"It's all in the chemistry," said Daria, "Sodium's not got such a tight grip on it's electrons in the outer shell, you can ionize it and have it as a liquid, you'd need diamond to contain it as we're still talking temperatures in excess of 1500 Celsius, and the pressures would still be fairly high if nothing compared to other gasses at that temperature and density."

Jane and Spike looked like they were still confused.

Daria eventually said "ummm, okay, we'll talk more about this later."

"I think the action has ended," said Robodaria.

"What about our submarines?" asked Donald.

"If they've seen them, they ain't showing it."

"How important is that plant?" asked Donald.

"Unknown."

"Can our subs investigate?" asked Donald.

"If the subs went active, they'd get wasted for the same reason that the ships did. This isn't Iraq, we'd be unable to come up with a plausible excuse for the deaths of those sailors," said Daria.

"What? You think that John Q. Public matters?"

"Actually, Donald, I think the entire military would go ape shit, especially considering the speed at which you can communicate over ELF channels precludes the possibility of getting anything useful out of such a mission," said Daria.. "It would probably make them feel undervalued… no, it would piss them off. Soldiers know they may die, but they take it personally when REMF's throw them away because they couldn't care less."

"And how would word of this leave the room?" asked Donald.

A very well-timed chorus of clearing throats brought Donald's attention to the fact that there were a great many military personnel in the room; even the MP's at the doors took this opportunity to clear their throats, also shooting looks at Donald that a sensible man would have taken as cause to slowly ease himself towards the nearest exit.

Donald, however, looked around with alarm. He then glared at Daria, looking highly enraged.

"I don't think you'll cause a general strike by nuking the item, they're expecting us to play along, let's make ourselves look gullible to them, besides, it might be important after all," said Daria.

Donald continued to glare, then he said "Fine, let's see if these things actually work."

--

"Captain, just got the strike co-ordinates, we're cleared hot," said the lieutenant at the communications station.

"Alright then, going hot, lock it up," said the captain as he brought the B52 out of it's course and placed his finger under the master arm switch.

Weapons officer went through his part of the arming procedure, saying "targets uploaded and locked, system check reveals no problems, arming firing chain, you're ready to shoot."

The captain then flipped the switch connecting the final parts of the weapons system to his pickle button as he said "Pickle's hot," before he pushed the button, "missile away."

The aircraft jumped as the two missiles dropped off their wing stations.

Not only was this weapon fitted with clean nukes, it was also fitted with rockets that use sodium in place of aluminium, so it now went a little bit further than before too.

They watched as the missiles shot ahead of them and climbed out.

--

"Missiles away, time on target, 43 seconds from now," said Robodaria.

Everyone watched the screens.

The cyborgs did not respond.

At 10 seconds from impact, a heat signature was detected.

two missiles had emerged from the sea.

"No way," said Winifred.

"What? You've never heard of a surface to air missile before?" asked Jane.

Winifred said "That's not what the 'No Way' comment was about, those are liquid fuelled motors, you just about never get those on military weapons, the propellants just plain raise too many problems."

"Hang on, how can you be sure-" started Donald.

"Spectra's consistent with hydrogen, oxygen and ionized steam, that's an axial aerospike motor on it's ass," said Robodaria.

The missiles intercepted the inbound weapons and caused mutual detonation.

"Okay, well, that was an expensive round of show and tell us nothing," said Donald.

"Except how to make the superconductors I need to make the advanced weapons work," said Winifred.

"Also tells us what he's packing more or less," said Daria, "and it makes sense that he's using liquid fuelled missiles, fusion engines give off enough power to store cryogenic propellants indefinitely."

"Bit risky though, isn't it?" asked Wesley.

"Yeah, but the pay off's a greater killing radius," said Daria.

"Yeah, turbopumps allow for greater pressure than a solid motor casing would, so you make better use of the energy provided," said Winifred.

"We don't want to play catch up with these people, we want to overtake them and moon them and flip them off from a great distance while they die of embarrassment from being so much slower than we are," said Daria.

"I think I can get us there now," said Winifred, "the only problem I was having was having was the current carrying capacity of all the known conductor materials, that includes superconductors due to their critical field limitations, too greater magnetizing force and the electrons start agitating the atoms, that'll bring the material past critical temperature and you're no longer superconducting. Alkali metals on the other hand don't use a crystal and can conduct more in the high temperatures, you have to get them there, but once you do, they shed their valence electrons, and they have bigger holes to flow through, and you're laughing."

"So you can get this done now, can you?"

"Should have a series of experiments complete by the end of next week, it works, and I have no reason to think it shouldn't, we can start developing our weapons platform," said Winifred.

"Jane, you've known Upchuck a lot longer than I have, do you think he's likely to rest on his laurels right now?" asked Daria.

"I'd have to think about that one, but offhand, he probably feels too secure to bother with any real technological development pushes, but that means we can't hint at anything we're doing."

"Okay then," said Daria.

--

Tiffany sat in her new apartment flipping through the channels looking for something decent.

The apartment wasn't that nice, she was tempted to request a nuclear device to clean up the bathroom, and the bathroom didn't look like it could withstand too much steam.

Until she got contacted by the Triads (on whatever terms) she would be short of things to do, so she was seriously considering spending some of her hard stolen money on some plaster, the tools to apply it, a wire brush, couple of cans of latex paint, new light fixture, she could of course try to get the landlord to do something, but that would likely take for fucking ever, and living with a décor that reminded her of the time she got captured by vampires would drive her nuts.

She made a complete list and headed out.

She remembered the location of a B&Q within walking distance, she headed there.

It was still open, but it would close in about half an hour, so she had to get a move on, she figured she should sort out the bathroom ceiling first as it looked like it was going to fall apart, she would need a new light fixture too because the light there was just a normal ceiling rose with a 60W bulb in a normal bayonet cap, that was just George Bush stupid.

She hadn't tried using the shower, but she imagined if she did that there would be enough condensation within the light fixing that there would be a ground fault.

She suddenly wondered if the place even had an RCCB in it's consumer unit.

She wasn't going to get too involved though, she just wanted the place looking decent while she was there. So she was going to sort the bathroom so she could use it, and maybe the bedroom/living room if the mission lasted long enough and gave her the time.

She just about made her purchases as the store started to close.

She kept an eye out looking for anyone following her or the pimps and their goon.

She smiled as she recalled the horror on their faces as she had made them kiss each other, and watching their discomfort as they had stripped each others clothes off and felt each other up was just classic.

Especially when they were looking at each other's penises, starting to cry as they fondled each other. They were aroused in spite of their revulsion, and the way they begged her not to make them suck each other off almost made Tiffany cum.

She also liked the fact that her being naked was of no comfort to them at all, one naked girl, three Triad gangsters, and they were scared of her.

In fact, they were afraid to look at her, as if doing so would set her off.

Having them retain their cum and swap it between them a couple of times made her spontaneously cum, she had then tied the pair of them up so they were sharing a gag made of their own underwear, and she had then tied them to the bed with egg shaped vibrators up their asses, and she left them to cum on each other as she had the goon help her take anything worth stealing.

She would cherish those memories for ever.

She got back into her flat and immediately selected the tools needed to remove the loose wallpaper and plaster, plus the tools needed to remove the unsuitable light from the ceiling.

The consumer unit was ancient, three rewireable fuses (Lights, Sockets and Cooker, she couldn't see any fuse wire laying around, she'd have to get some of that next time she was out shopping) and no RCCB was present.

And there was an electric shower installed in the bathroom.

Idiots!

The place hadn't burned down at least, so the wires were probably all right, although she wasn't going to use that shower unit without an RCCB, she also figured if the moron installing the shower hadn't fitted an RCCB to the consumer unit, then he probably hadn't used the right conductor section area either.

She could get into that later, she removed the fuse for the lights and brought a lamp so she had a source of light to work to.

About halfway through removing the plaster when she heard a knock.

It was the landlord.

"Yes?"

"I heard scratching noises as I was walking past your apartment, which by the way, is not yours, it's mine."

"It's also a piece of shit."

"Show me what you're doing."

Tiffany showed the guy into the bathroom, and he looked furious.

"Better it comes down now and not when I'm in the shower, which, by the way, has no residual current circuit breaker, so I'm not using that until a proper electrician sorts it the fuck out. I'm just going to get the plaster fixed and painted."

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING HERE?"

"Yes, how about an amendment to my rent agreement: If I get this place looking habitable, I get to stay for half the rent?"

"How about I evict you if you don't stop what you're doing?" asked the landlord.

Tiffany grabbed the man's neck and lifted him into the air, looking really relaxed as she did as if she was just lifting a pen, and said "How about I not put you in intensive care?"

"How about I call the police?" the man rasped.

"How about I mention the shower and prompt an apparently urgently needed investigation of the entire block of apartments?" asked Tiffany.

"Alright, you win," said the landlord.

Tiffany lowered the guy to his feet and said "Pleasure doing business with you," as she shook his hand and patted him on the back (a touch too hard) as she led him out the apartment.

She then got back to work.

--

"This is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine," said Louis as he brought the SA80 to his shoulder and dry fired it, "And it is such a piece of shit."

Dave couldn't help but chuckle.

Louis was a twat a lot of the time, but the SA80 was also known as CIGARGs, which meant 'Can I Get A Real Gun?'

How the Enfield rifle company managed to persuade this guy to buy so many was beyond him, but they had to get something to fight with since they couldn't explain to their own quartermaster why they needed the weapons, and if the weapons were to turn up where they shouldn't be, they would be either fired, or jailed and then fired, and military jails suck harder than anything any civilian prison can come up with.

Louis put it down and picked up a G36, and said "I've heard good things about this one."

"Yes, it's very popular," said the gun dealer.

"Alright, we'll take two G36s, with six clips and a C-mag for each, 560 5.56 by 45 rounds, two Glock 18s with three clips for each, 180 nine by nineteen Hydra shok rounds, eight fragmentation grenades, two flashbangs, aaaaannnnnnd three kilos of semtex with eight Remote fuzes with compatible control pack … Oh, also, two Smith and Wesson Model 500s with 100 Cor Bon full powers."

Louis shrugged as he took one of the X-frame revolvers, thinking 'Pretty decent weapon for a revolver, but a revolver?'

The pair of them left the back alley with their purchases and got in their vehicle to head towards the border.

Louis finally asked "What's with the five shooters?"

"Cover. If we think we're about to get caught, we're rich, recreational hunters, and were never there. For a couple of hundred quid each," explained Dave.

"Okay, but let's just not get caught, eh?" said Louis.

"Sounds like a plan."

They hoped Xander's slayers had been keeping a low profile as instructed.

They eventually got close enough to the border and started hiding their vehicle.

This done they changed into their DPM outfits and applied green face paint, before shouldering their backpacks and heading out towards the Zimbabwean border.

--

"We need to get a look at that device," said Daria.

"Okay, how?" asked Jane.

"Upchuck will know how to look for any probes we send down, and even Robodaria can't work without some form of external power to recharge off of."

"Right, we basically need something that needs no power, no oxygen, can walk on the seabed and can basically do the things people do … No, fucking way."

--

"'I'm Telling my mom on you?'" paraphrased Spike as he and Jane walked down the harbour.

"Stop saying that, and stop fucking laughing too. Something's really wrong here, first Tiffany and now us?" asked Jane.

"I think you're right there, what do you want to do about it?" asked Spike.

"I want Daria to explain apologise and stop going down this corrupt and evil path, I think it's the authority she's holding that's doing this."

"Hmm … "

Jane looked at Spike for a few seconds and said "What?"

"I think we need to give her the benefit of the doubt here, see where she's going, you know?"

Jane considered this and wondered what it was that suddenly prompted Spike's newfound trust.

--

Donald nursed his drink as he waited for Barry to show up.

He couldn't believe Daria just did that: Promise change, and then so publicly humiliate him.

"Hey Donald, how's Daria working out for you?"

"Shit. Are you going to do something to her soon?"

"Huh. That shouldn't be, we've taken our action, she should be loyal as Blair right now, what happened?"

"She sided with the soldiers when I suggested we send our subs to attack something, but our forces train for high risk, it's their jobs to do this."

"Would you have gotten anything useful out of it?" asked Barry.

"I … no," said Donald, "Probably not."

"Does she normally exhibit disregard for the lives of those under her command?" asked Barry.

"No."

"Okay, the modification we used has to be subtle if we don't want it being detected, we have a LOT of experience with this, but she'll eventually be entirely on side, give it a month and see what happens, no signs of improvement, I'll chase up the mystic and find out what's happening, okay?"

"Okay."

--

Tom was putting his stuff away as he was settling into his Bromwell Dorm room, having enrolled on his course.

He was doing a business course in order to prepare to inherit his family business.

He would be excited, except something about Daria was bothering him.

She had insisted that she wanted them to start fucking like a couple of porn stars, but this was way off from the shy introverted girl that could barely move beyond kissing he had gotten used to.

Even the non-sex stuff had been awkward as hell, what had changed? Was she making up for lost time? Trying to right a perceived wrong? Except her body language, usually guarded, was now that of an outwardly affectionate woman, she actually seemed to be fawning over him now, what was that about?

He removed a stack of pairs of pants from his suitcase and was about to place them in his underwear drawer when he realized that some of them felt wrong.

He turned the stack over and found several pairs of pink panties underneath.

"Looks like we got our pants mixed up at some point," said Daria.

Tom turned to see her standing in his room's doorway.

Daria closed the door and walked up to him producing her warrant card saying "Face the wall, hands on your head."

He looked alarmed as he processed what Daria was telling him to do, and he eventually nodded and obeyed.

Daria stepped behind him and cuffed his left hand, placing it behind his back, she then grabbed his other hand and cuffed that too.

"Afraid I'm going to have to strip search you," said Daria, as she slowly slid her hands under his jumper.

It quickly became obvious that she wasn't arresting him.

"Okay, I'll come quietly," said Tom as he relaxed into it.

Or tried, this still felt wrong, she had never even hinted at an interest in BDSM, so there was still this nagging thought at the back of his mind that something was seriously wrong here, but he wasn't about to get confrontational until after he was out of these cuffs.

After pulling his jumper over his head, Daria undid his trousers, sliding her hands down his legs as they fell.

She felt his groin saying "Quite a package you got there, I'm going to have to take a sample to make sure there's nothing there that shouldn't be there."

She then pulled him off the wall and threw him onto the bed, she pulled down his pants and set about collecting her sample.

She started removing her own clothes as she manipulated him saying "probably best the sample doesn't contaminate my clothes."

Tom almost came right there, he resolved to talk to her more seriously after she was done playing with him.

--

End.


End file.
